After Chinese drills, the Taiwan president honors military pilots. Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen hailed fighter pilots who scrambled against China’s air force during its maneuvers surrounding the island on Friday and promised to maintain boosting the armed forces as Beijing’s military actions waned.
After Tsai returned from Los Angeles, where she visited U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy, China launched the drills, which included bomber and missile attacks.
Taipei denies China’s claim to democratic Taiwan.
Tsai thanked fighter fighters at Magong Air Base near the Taiwan Strait in Taichung, central Taiwan.
“I want to tell everyone: as long as we are united, we can reassure the country’s people and let the world see our determination to protect the nation,” she said in a presidential office video.
Tsai said the 1997-deployed Taiwanese Ching-kuo Indigenous Defence Fighters (IDF) had been improved.
“We’ll keep upgrading software and hardware and training staff,” she added.
Tsai’s office showed her chatting to flight-uniformed pilots and receiving a brief in front of an IDF hangar.
Taiwan reported lower activity after China’s three-day drills finished on Monday.
Taiwan’s defense ministry reported no Chinese military aircraft breaching the Taiwan Strait middle line on Friday morning.
In its morning report on Chinese military activity, Taiwan’s defense ministry reported four Chinese military planes and eight vessels surrounding Taiwan.
An accompanying graphic of China’s activity showed no Chinese warplanes crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line, an unofficial barrier between the two.
Since August, when it performed war drills after then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, China has flown fighter planes beyond the median line, claiming it does not recognize it.
The ministry’s chart showed one Chinese Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft traveling between Taiwan’s southwest coast and the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands at the top of the South China Sea.
