China sent 39 warplanes - mostly fighter jets - into Taiwan's air defense zone on Sunday, the island's government said, in the second-largest daily incursion on record.
Taiwan lives under the constant threat of invasion by China, which sees the self-ruled, democratic island as part of its territory to eventually be reclaimed, by force if necessary.
The final quarter of 2021 saw a massive spike of incursions from China into Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ), with the biggest single day coming on October 4, when 56 Chinese warplanes entered the zone.
The island's defense ministry said late Sunday it saw 39 warplanes from China enter Taiwan's ADIZ - the second-largest number of incursions on record, which is shared with October 2 last year.
Chinese military personnel stand near a Chinese military's J-10C airplane. China flew 39 warplanes including J-10 fighter jets toward Taiwan in its largest such sortie of the new year, continuing a pattern that the island has answered by scrambling its own jets in response
24 J-16 fighters (file image) were among 39 Chinese planes flown into Taiwan's ADIZ
One nuclear-capable H-6 bomber, pictured, also flew in the sortie, along with 10 J-10 fighters and several other military aircraft
Ten US Navy ships, including aircraft carriers USS Carl Vinson and USS Abraham Lincoln, participated in exercises with Japan from January 17-22 'for effective deterrence and response', Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force tweeted Monday, pictured this weekend
The USS Carl Vinson transits the Philippine Sea Jan. 22, 2022. Operating as part of U.S. Pacific Fleet
The activity has generally been in the air space southwest of Taiwan and falls into what Taiwan's military calls the air defense identification zone
It added that it scrambled its own aircraft to broadcast warnings on Sunday and deployed air defense missile systems to track the jets that entered its zone.