Taiwan says 25 Chinese Air Force warplanes breached its airspace and defense zone just a day after the U.S. warned China 

Just a day after U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken warned China that it would be a “serious mistake” for anyone to try and change the status quo in the western Pacific via military threats, China flexed its military muscle exercises near Taiwan on Monday sending an unprecedentedly large group of aircraft to breach Taiwan’s defense zone.

Seeing the U.S. as a nation in decline both economically and militarily, China made the largest ever breach of Taiwan’s airspace further. According to China News Daily, citing a Taipei-based think tank, Chinese air force warplanes made a record 380 incursions into Taiwan’s airspace in 2020 for a total of 91 days from January to November 2020.

Analysts say China’s strategy is more about sending a message to the US and the world than an attempt to wear down the Taiwanese military and public. Just last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced in a speech that “The biggest source of chaos in the present-day world is the United States.” President Xi Jinping upped the ante of his central theme that “the East is rising and the West is declining.”

In an announcement on Monday, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said that 25 Chinese Air Force planes entered its airspace, which included 18 fighter jets escorting four long-range bombers. The breach marks the largest ever Chinese aerial incursion since Taiwan began recording and publicly disclosing the data and follows last month’s 20-strong Chinese aircraft incursion.

https://twitter.com/MoNDefense/status/1381595785632997379

In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Blinken said: “What we’ve seen, and what is of real concern to us, is increasingly aggressive actions by the government in Beijing directed at Taiwan, raising tensions in the Straits.”