For the second consecutive day, China has flown dozens of military aircraft over Taiwan. Friday there were 38, yesterday 39, the Taiwan Ministry of Defense reports. They got so close that Taiwan felt compelled to launch fighter jets into the sky.
China says Taiwan belongs to China. For nearly two years now, it has backed up that claim by flying fighter jets and bombers into Taiwan. It never came to a confrontation, but the number of planes that China is sending is increasing. Taiwanese Prime Minister Su Tseng-chang said yesterday that China is endangering peace in the region.
Taiwan is an island close to the Chinese coast. Until 1949 it belonged to China. In that year, Mao Zedong’s communists took control of mainland China. The Nationalist government fled to Taiwan, but the Communist leaders in Beijing have never relinquished their claim to the island. Taiwan has the support of the US and Japan, among others.
–
