NNA - More than 30 Chinese warplanes entered Taiwan’s air defense zone over the course of about six hours, the island’s defense ministry said Thursday, a sharp ramp-up in single-day incursions by China’s military.

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang announced Thursday that from 5 a.m. local time (2100 GMT), “a total of 37 Chinese military aircrafts” entered Taiwan’s southwestern ADIZ.

“Some continued... toward the Western Pacific for long-range reconnaissance training,” Sun said at around 11 a.m.

Taiwan’s military is “monitoring the situation closely,” the ministry said on Twitter, adding that patrol planes, naval vessels and land-based missile systems have been dispatched in response.

They did not clarify if the incursions were ongoing. -- AFP

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