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Taiwan scrambles fighter jets after PLA spy plane enters air defence zone
- Taipei issues warnings as Chinese military surveillance aircraft is spotted close to Pratas Islands in southwest sector of its ADIZ
- Latest reconnaissance mission comes on National Day holiday, but PLA ‘doesn’t take days off’, military observer says
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Taiwan said it scrambled fighter jets on Thursday evening to ward off a Chinese warplane that had entered its air defence identification zone (ADIZ) near a group of islets administered by Taipei.
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The PLA Air Force Y-8 surveillance aircraft entered the southwest sector of the zone close to the Pratas Islands – known as the Dongsha Islands in mainland China – the defence ministry said.
The fighters were scrambled and warnings were broadcast telling the PLA warplane to leave the area, it said in a brief statement.
The Pratas, which comprise one island, two coral reefs and two banks, are located about 445km (275 miles) from Taiwan’s southern port city of Kaohsiung and just over 300km from the Chinese mainland.
The area has been designated a national park and has no human residents except for a coastguard garrison. In August, Taiwan dispatched a marine company to reinforce the garrison amid reports the People’s Liberation Army was planning a simulated attack on the islets.
Despite Thursday being China’s National Day, which this year overlapped with the Mid-Autumn Festival, the timing of the latest incursion by the PLA came as no surprise to Hong Kong-based military commentator Song Zhongping.
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