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Taiwan said it scrambled fighter jets Monday after Chinese military aircraft briefly crossed into its airspace, the first major incursion since the island\u2019s Beijing-wary president was re-elected in January.<\/p>\n
Taiwan\u2019s defence ministry said Chinese H-6 bomber and accompanying aircraft briefly crossed over a \u201cmedian line\u201d in the Taiwan Strait<\/p>\n
It was only the second time Chinese aircraft crossed the largely respected line dividing the two sides in the strait since March last year.<\/p>\n
The aircraft returned to Chinese airspace after \u201cour fighter jets took appropriate responsive and interceptive measures and broadcast warnings to leave\u201d, the ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n
It did not specify how many and what type of Chinese aircraft had crossed the median line.<\/p>\n
Last March, two Chinese J-11 fighter jets crossed over the line for the first time in years, prompting Taipei to accuse Beijing of violating a long-held tacit agreement in a \u201creckless and provocative\u201d incursion.<\/p>\n
China has ramped up the number of fighter and warship crossings near Taiwan or through the strait since President Tsai Ing-wen was first elected in 2016.<\/p>\n
Her government refuses to acknowledge that Taiwan is part of \u201cone China\u201d.<\/p>\n
In December, shortly before elections, a newly commissioned Chinese aircraft carrier sailed through the Taiwan Strait for a second time.<\/p>\n
The Shandong, China\u2019s first domestically built carrier, also traversed the strait in November, sparking concerns from Washington\u2019s de facto embassy in Taiwan.<\/p>\n
Tsai won a second term in a landslide in January in an outcome seen as a forceful rebuke of Beijing\u2019s ongoing campaign to isolate the island.<\/p>\n
China still sees the self-ruling democratic island as part of its territory and vows to one day seize it, by force if necessary.<\/p>\n