BEIJING
– China government has discarded Taiwan's claim that two Chinese military
aircraft had violated Taiwan's airspace four times, claiming it was a
"routine flight".
Taiwan
jumbles its jets to intercept two Chinese military aircraft, as which it was identified
as Yun-8 transport aircraft. Xiong Ho-ji, major general of Taiwan's Air Force
Combatant Command, told reporters that Chinese planes left without occurrence.
"Our
military aircraft carried out a routine flight on the 25th in the relevant
airspace, there was no occurrence of any abnormality," China's Defense
Ministry stated in a faxed statement to Reuters late on Tuesday.
The
two countries which have been ruled separately since defeated Nationalist
forces fled to the island at the end of a civil war in 1949 might be threatened
by this incident, hurting ties between them. China has never refused the use of
force to bring Taiwan under Beijing's control.
The violation
of Taiwanese air space comes a week after the Pentagon sued a diplomatic
complaint with China about the conduct of a Chinese fighter jet, which it alleged
came within meters of a U.S. Navy patrol plane.
However,
China has said the censure is groundless and its pilot maintained a safe
distance from the U.S plane.
