South China Morning Post
Date: 1 Apr, 2019
By: Lawrence Chung, Liu Zhen
- Taiwanese president takes hardline response to Chinese fighter jets crossing of ‘median line’
- Cross-strait tensions threaten to draw in Washington, analysts say
Two PLA Air Force J-11 fighters and a H-6K bomber patrol airspace between mainland China and Taiwan. Photo: Xinhua
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.
In a Facebook post on Monday, which included her signature, Tsai is pictured giving an order via telephone with captioned remarks reading “I have already ordered the military to stage a forceful expulsion in the first place against any provocation by incursion of the median line [into the Taiwanese side].”
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.
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