Taiwan will forcefully expel PLA warplanes next time: Tsai Ing-wen

[soryang]

Taiwanese president takes hardline response to Chinese fighter jets crossing of ‘median line’
Cross-strait tensions threaten to draw in Washington, analysts say
SCMP
Lawrence Chung

Liu Zhen

Published: 3:12pm, 1 Apr, 2019

Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has ordered a “forceful expulsion” of PLA warplanes next time they cross the “median line” separating the self-ruled island from the Chinese mainland.

Tsai’s response to China’s decision on Sunday, to send two fighter jets across the tacitly understood line dividing the Taiwan Strait, confirmed concerns that the action had opened a new flashpoint in the increasingly complex relations between the US, Taiwan and China...

Taiwan scrambled interceptors on Sunday morning and broadcast warnings after two PLA J-11 fighter jets crossed the median line and entered the island’s southwestern airspace...

Analysts in Taiwan said, while it remained to be seen how Beijing would react to the order to forcefully disperse any future incursion by PLA jets, Tsai could risk setting off a cross-strait conflict which might drag Washington into the situation...

Analysts in Taiwan said the incursion was intentional and a response to US naval “freedom of navigation” exercises in the strait.

more: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3004119/chinese-jets-incursion-across-taiwan-strait-beijings-way?utm_source=googlenewsstand_web&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=20190401&utm_campaign=off_platform