As Taiwan's vice president is about to leave for the U.S.

As Taiwan's vice president is about to leave for the U.S., Taiwan's Defense Ministry says the PLA has disturbed Taiwan on a large scale for the second time this week.

TAIPEI - 

Taiwan's defense ministry said ten Chinese air force planes entered Taiwan's air defense identification zone on Wednesday (Aug. 9), accompanied by five Chinese warships on "operational readiness" patrols, the second such incursion this week. In the same week, Taiwan's Vice President Lai Ching-Te was visiting Paraguay and transiting the United States, while former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso was also in Taiwan for a visit.

Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) said that since around 9 a.m. Wednesday, a total of 25 sorties of various types of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) fighter planes, including J-10s and J-16s, bomber Boom-6s, transport planes, such as the Yun-8 and Yun-9, and early-warning planes, such as the Airborne Air Marshal-500, have been detected carrying out missions at sea, with 10 of the sorties transcending the center line of the Taiwan Straits and its extension line, and entering Taiwan's Southwest Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).

The PLA warplanes also cooperated with five of its warships to carry out joint combat readiness police patrols. Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) emphasized that the National Army had used joint intelligence surveillance and detection methods to closely monitor the situation and deployed mission aircraft, ships and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor and respond to the situation. China's warplanes and warships were also conducting activities around Taiwan on Sunday on a similar scale as on Wednesday.

China claims Taiwan as its territory, and over the past three years Taiwan has repeatedly protested against China's increased military activity in its neighborhood, while Beijing has stepped up pressure to try the force Taiwan to accept its sovereigns.

The Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) is a broad area that Taiwan monitors and patrols to give its forces more time to respond to threats, and Chinese aircraft have yet to enter Taiwan's airspace.

In April, when Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen transited through Los Angeles, USA, during a trip and met with Congressional Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the Chinese military staged large-scale joint exercises in the sea and airspace around Taiwan as a warning. Last August, the Chinese Communist Party also conducted large-scale live-fire military exercises around Taiwan in protest of a visit to Taipei by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Taiwan's Vice President Lai Ching-teh's visit to Paraguay this week to participate in the inauguration of its new president, transiting through the United States on the way, has drawn China's strong displeasure, even though it is officially said to be only a transit.

China's ambassador to the United States, Xie Feng, said last month that "the top priority is to stop Lai's visit to the United States." He said the biggest threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait comes from the Taiwan authorities' "reliance on the United States for independence" and their refusal to recognize the "1992 Consensus", as well as from some forces in the United States advocating "using Taiwan to control China".