Taiwan Repels 'Multiple' Chinese Fighters Over Taiwanese Airspace

TAIPEI — Taiwan's air force scrambled planes to warn off "multiple" Chinese fighter jets that had briefly entered Taiwan's air defence identification zone on June 9, the country's Ministry of National Defense said in a statement.

The Su-30 fighters, some of China's most advanced jets, were issued verbal warnings to leave and Taiwanese air force jets "took active responses to dispel" the intruders, the ministry said.

"The military has full surveillance and control of all activities in the sea and air that surround Taiwan, and the public can rest assured of our capability to uphold security for our national territory," the ministry said.

The defense ministry also confirmed that a U.S. C-40A transport plane had just hours before passed over Taiwan with permission near Taipei before heading south along the country's coast.

The incidents occurred a day after the commander of the U.S. 7th Fleet confirmed that the guided-missile destroyer USS Russell had passed through the Taiwan Strait the previous week, according to a report in the Stars and Stripes.

This was the U.S. Navy's seventh such transit this year and second in two weeks.

The Chinese incursion also came hours after Taiwan's defense ministry announced the country's annual Han Kuang exercises, which had been postponed due to the coronavirus, will be conducted in July and September, Taiwan's Central News Agency reports.

The annual exercises test the country's capabilities to ward off attack from China's People's Liberation Army.