台湾、昨年の中国機による防空圏侵入３８０回と発表　過去最多

【台北ＡＦＰ＝時事】台湾の国防当局は5日、昨年防空識別圏（ADIZ）に中国機が380回入り、過去最多だったと発表した。ある軍事シンクタンクは、中台間の緊張が1990年代半ば以降で最も高まっていると警告している。（写真は資料写真）
　昨年、中国の戦闘機や爆撃機、偵察機はかつてない頻度で台湾のＡＤＩＺ内に入った。台湾国防部（国防省）の報道官は「２０２０年に発生した、ＡＤＩＺ南西域への３８０回という侵入回数は、それ以前に比べてはるかに多い」とし、「地域と台湾の安全保障に対する脅威だ」と述べた。
　同報道官はこれらの中国機について、「台湾軍の反応を試し、防空体制に圧力をかけ、われわれの活動領空を狭める」ために同域を集中的に狙っているとの見方を示した。
　さらに、米高官らによる２度の訪台中に、中国機が台湾海峡の「中間線」を越えたこともあった。
　中間線は非公式なものであるとはいえ、これまでは同海峡上の台中境界線としておおむね機能してきた。だが中国外務省の報道官は昨年になって、そのような線は存在しないと明言している。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/01/06-10:38）

Chinese jets made a record 380 incursions into Taiwan's defence zone last year, a defence official said Tuesday, as a military-linked think-tank warned tensions were now at their highest since the mid-1990s.
Democratic and self-ruled Taiwan lives under the constant threat of invasion by authoritarian China, which views the island as its own territory and has vowed to seize it one day, by force if necessary.
Beijing's animosity has increased dramatically since Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen won election in 2016, as she rejects the idea that the island is part of one China.
But the sabre-rattling reached new peaks last year as Beijing sent jets, bombers and surveillance planes into Taiwan's air defence identification zone (ADIZ) at an unprecedented rate.
The 380 incursions into our southwest ADIZ in 2020 are a lot more frequent than the past, said defence ministry spokesman Shih Shun-wen.
This... poses a threat to regional and our national security.
Chinese aircraft targeted the area to test our military's response, to exert pressure on our aerial defence and to squeeze the aerial space for our activities, he added.
The figures came as the military-affiliated Institute for National Defence and Security Research warned in an annual report on the People's Liberation Army that the Chinese military threat was the highest since the 1996 missile crisis in Taiwan Strait.
That year Beijing fired missiles into the strait in a bid to deter voters in the island's first democratic presidential election, prompting Washington to send warships to the area.
Jeremy Hung, a co-author of the report, said Chinese jets flew closer to Taiwan and frequently into its defence zone on at least 110 days last year.
This compared with just six long-distance training missions around Taiwan in 2016, and 20 in 2017.
Beijing's increased military actions were meant as a warning to Taiwan not to cross the red line amid warming relations with the United States, Hung said.
Chinese jets also crossed over the so-called median line of the Taiwan Strait during two high-level visits by US officials.
The median line is an unofficial but, until now, largely adhered to border running down the narrow strait separating Taiwan from the mainland.
Last year a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman declared the line did not exist.
Beijing has also been angered by the increasingly warm ties Taiwan built with Washington during outgoing President Donald Trump's tenure.
On top of the high-level visits, his administration approved some $18 billion worth of arms sales to Taipei, while US warships sailed through the Taiwan Strait 13 times last year, according to local media.