China once again sent military drones to circumnavigate Taiwan, a self-ruled island that it considers a breakaway province, on Friday as a show of force, alerting the United States' security ally Japan.
Japan's defense ministry reported two suspected Chinese drones flew over the waters between the country's westernmost island of Yonaguni and Taiwan. The less than 70-mile-wide "Yonaguni Gap" waterway has been increasingly used by the Chinese military for transits and operations.
Tokyo routinely reports the movement of foreign military aircraft within or near its air defense identification zone (ADIZ), which borders Taiwan's ADIZ to the west. It is an area of international airspace where tracking and identification of aircraft is required for national security purposes.
China continues to pile pressure on Taiwan, a security partner of Washington, by deploying military aircraft and warships around the island daily to deter the island's separatism. Beijing views Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te and his ruling Democratic Progressive Party as "separatists."
Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, on Wednesday told U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in Beijing that Taiwan's independence poses the "greatest threat" to regional stability. Sullivan emphasized the necessity of "preserving peace and stability" across the Taiwan Strait.
One of the Chinese drones transited southward on Friday as it entered the "Yonaguni Gap" from the East China Sea to the north and reached the Philippine Sea to the south. The other drone flew in the opposite direction as it transited over the waterway northward, according to Japan's report.
In response to the Chinese drones' flights, Japan's air force scrambled its fighter jets that were assigned to the Southwestern Air Defense Command. The report did not identify the types of drones.
The defense ministry in Taiwan on Saturday confirmed China's drone flight operations over the waters off the island's east coast from the previous day. A total of 30 Chinese military aircraft, including the two drones, were flying around the island in the 24 hours to 6 a.m. on Saturday.
On Friday night, the Taiwanese defense ministry said 20 Chinese military aircraft, including J-16 fighter jets and KJ-500 airborne early warning and control aircraft, were detected from 4:30 p.m., and 14 of them approached the northern, central, southwestern, and eastern airspace of Taiwan.
Newsweek's map shows the Chinese drones' flight paths in two colors. The track shown in red is provided by Taiwan's defense ministry, and the Japanese military's tracks are displayed in dark red. China's defense ministry did not immediately respond to a written request for comment by email.
The drones departed from China's southeastern coast and crossed the north and the south of the 110-mile-wide Taiwan Strait, according to the Taiwanese defense ministry. They approached Orchid Island off the southeastern coast of Taiwan with a distance of 33 nautical miles (38 miles).
The Chinese military has been sending its drones off the eastern coast of Taiwan, probing the defense capabilities of both the island and Japan. On August 23, two Chinese drones were spotted transiting the "Yonaguni Gap" northward, but their types were not identified by both the militaries of Japan and Taiwan.
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