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Mainland Chinese Y-12 plane sent to test Taiwan’s frontline response, island’s defence ministry says
- Ministry confirms that aircraft that flew over Taipei-controlled islet was a transport plane
- But mainland analyst says the flight might have simply been a ‘deviation’
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Taiwan’s defence ministry confirmed on Tuesday that a small civilian aircraft from mainland China flew close to a Taipei-controlled islet earlier this month in what the ministry said was a test of the self-ruled island’s defences.
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Taiwanese air force chief of staff Huang Chih-wei said in Taipei that a Y-12 mainland transport plane flew very close to Dongyin, a frontline islet in Taiwan’s Matsu island cluster, on February 5.
Dongyin is just 16km (10 miles) from the mainland city of Fuzhou and hosts major missile and radar complexes, including the Tien Kung, or Sky Bow, and Hsiung Feng anti-aircraft missiles.
The confirmation came 10 days after Dongyin residents told local media they had spotted an aircraft.
On February 6, Taiwanese air-defence troops stationed on the islet confirmed the plane was “an unidentified fixed-wing twin-propeller aircraft”, and said the aircraft was monitored closely.
Huang offered fewer specifics about the flight on Tuesday and would not confirm whether the air force took action to warn or expel the plane, saying the Y-12 “did not enter Taiwan’s airspace or invade other important areas”.
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