Taiwan's Defense Minister Will Take Firm Action Against Chinese Fighter Jets And Drones

Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng accompanied Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen to inspect the military camp in Jinlioujie District, Yilan. (Wikimedia Commons/)

JAKARTA - Chinese fighter jets or drones that infiltrate Taiwan's territorial airspace will be considered the 'first attack, the country's Defense Minister said.

This was conveyed by Chiu Kuo-cheng while speaking before members of the Foreign and National Defense Committee Legislative, about threats posed by a spate of China's recent escalation measures, with Beijing fighters and drones flying with Taiwan.

However, Chiu did not specify how Taipei would respond if China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) plane violated territorial boundaries, defined as 12 nautical miles (22.2 kilometers) from the island's shores.

"In the past, we said we would not be the first to attack, meaning we would not fire the first shot without (China) firing artillery shells or missiles first," Chiu Kuo-cheng said, citing CNN October 6.

"But now the definition has clearly changed, because China uses tools like drones. So we have adjusted, and will see every crossing of the air entity (to Taiwan's territorial airspace) as the first attack," he said.

Earlier this year, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said the island's military would take "the necessary and powerful countermeasures" against what he called China's gray zone war tactics, including 'drone harassment'.

"We will not give China an excuse to create conflict. We will not provoke a dispute and we will restrain ourselves, but that does not mean we will not fight back," President Tsai said.

Taiwan is located less than 110 miles (177 kilometers) off the coast of China. For more than 70 years both sides have been ruled separately, but that has not stopped the ruling Chinese Communist Party from claiming the island as its own, despite never controlling it.

Tensions between Beijing and Taipei have been at their highest level in decades, with the Chinese military holding large military exercises near the island.

Following the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan in early August, China stepped up military pressure tactics on the island, sending fighter jets across the midline of the Taiwan Strait, the waters that separate Taiwan and China.

For decades, the central line has served as an informal demarcation line between the two, with rare military strikes.