Taiwan has deployed missile defense systems and scrambled fighter jets after dozens of Chinese military aircraft were spotted around the country, with many flying deep into the western Pacific.
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00:00The military has deployed missile defense systems and scrambled its Air Force after dozens of Chinese military aircraft were spotted around the country.
00:08Jaime Okon has been monitoring developments on this and he joins us now from the newsroom. Jaime, what are you hearing?
00:14Well, it's a pretty busy day in terms of military activity around Taiwan.
00:18Now that Typhoon Kongrei has passed, China is conducting military exercises once again.
00:24Taiwan's defense ministry reported 44 Chinese military aircraft spotted around Taiwan on Sunday.
00:32That's a larger number than usual, but what's really drawing a lot of the attention is this long-range exercise that China conducted.
00:39Taiwan's military says that 35 aircraft, including fighter jets, bombers and other planes, flew from China between Taiwan and the Philippines and deep into the western Pacific.
00:50That entire flight lasted about 11 hours.
00:54And Taiwan's military says that these kinds of operations are actually a chance for China to practice more offensive types of missions and try to practice hitting targets all across the main island of Taiwan as Beijing continues modernization efforts with its military.
01:08I spoke to one analyst earlier who said that it's really the farther east coast of Taiwan that China is trying to hit.
01:16The value of being on the east side of Taiwan is geography.
01:19For one, if you're trying to deny outside intervention in a Taiwan contingency operation, being out there to stop them from getting to the east side of Taiwan is very important.
01:28But also, there are very valuable targets on the east side of Taiwan that are protected by Taiwan's very large mountains.
01:35So if you want to hit those targets easily, best way to do it is to just go around and hit them directly.
01:40Now, China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has not renounced the use of force to take it over.
01:47In response to these exercises, Taiwan's military deployed missile defense systems and scrambled its own fighter jets to monitor the situation.
01:55At first, some observers thought that this kind of exercise from China could be maybe tied to the U.S. elections as they come in about a day or two.
02:02But sources within Taiwan's military tell me that it actually has more to do with the rate of how rapid China is modernizing its military.