Beijing, Aug 03: Taiwan's Defense Ministry on Wednesday said that China had sent 21 planes flying toward Taiwan as US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed at Songshan airport in Taipei on Tuesday.
"21 PLA aircraft ... entered #Taiwan's southwest ADIZ on August 2, 2022," the island's defence ministry said in a statement on Twitter.
Beijing sees official American contact with Taiwan as encouragement to make the island's decades-old de facto independence permanent, a step U.S. leaders say they don't support.
The ministry said that out of 21 Chinese aircraft, 18 of them are fighter jets. The rest included an early warning plane and an electronic warfare plane.
The ADIZ is not the same as Taiwan's territorial airspace but includes a far greater area that overlaps with part of China's own air defence identification zone and even includes some of the mainland, according to a report on AFP.
Amid raising tension with China, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday landed in Taipei in Taiwan.
Shortly after landing, the 82-year-old politician reaffirmed her country's unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan's democracy and said this trip in no way contradicts longstanding United States policy on the self-governed island. She said, "Our Congressional delegation's visit to Taiwan honors America's unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan's vibrant Democracy."
"Our visit is part of our broader trip to the Indo-Pacific - including Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan - focused on mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance. Our discussions with Taiwan leadership will focus on reaffirming our support for our partner and on promoting our shared interests, including advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific region. America's solidarity with the 23 million people of Taiwan is more important today than ever, as the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy," the US House Speaker said in a statement.
She added, "Our visit is one of several Congressional delegations to Taiwan - and it in no way contradicts longstanding United States policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, U.S.-China Joint Communiques and the Six Assurances. The United States continues to oppose unilateral efforts to change the status quo."
China responded to her visit with a warning that it will have a "severe impact" on bilateral ties and it "gravely undermines" regional peace and stability, as the official media said that the military will launch a series of "targeted" operations to counter her trip.
"It has a severe impact on the political foundation of China-US relations, and seriously infringes upon China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. It gravely undermines peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and sends a seriously wrong signal to the separatist forces for 'Taiwan independence'.
China firmly opposes and sternly condemns this, and has made serious demarche and strong protest to the United States," the statement said. There is but one-China in the world, Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory, and the Government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China, it said.
Taiwan and China split in 1949 following a civil war that ended with a communist victory on the mainland. They have no official relations but are linked by billions of dollars of trade and investment.
Both sides say they are one country but disagree over which government is entitled to national leadership.