Taiwan Activates Air Defence as China Aircraft Enter Zone

Taiwan Activates Air Defence as China Aircraft Enter Zone
Chinese J-15 fighter jets being launched from the deck of the Liaoning aircraft carrier drills in the South China Sea on Jan. 2, 2017. STR/AFP via Getty Images
|Updated:
0:00

TAIPEI—Taiwan activated its defense systems on Thursday after reporting 37 Chinese military aircraft flying into the island’s air defense zone, some of which then flew into the western Pacific, in Beijing’s latest mass air incursion.

China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has over the past three years regularly flown its air force into the skies near the island, though not into Taiwan’s territorial air space.