Nearly two dozen Chinese military aircraft and ships were spotted near the Taiwan Strait on Monday morning.
According to the defense ministry, eleven Chinese military planes and four ships were detected crossing the middle line of the contested buffer zone.
Chinese Military Aircraft Increase Activity Near Taiwan
This comes amid heightened tension in the region after the United States shot down a 200-foot Chinese surveillance balloon over Montana. The United States Navy and Marine Corps conducted coordinated expeditionary strike force exercises over the weekend in the South China Sea.
The 7th Fleet described Saturday’s exercise by claiming that the mobility and resilience of amphibious platforms provide the Navy and Marine Corps team with an asymmetric advantage in maritime conditions.
This seamless naval integration developed a strong presence in the region, hence promoting peace and stability.
The four objects shot down around the United States over the past week. The first was identified as a Chinese surveillance balloon, while the identities of the other three remain unknown. After the newest UFO was shot down over Lake Huron on Sunday, officials refused to rule out the possibility that the recent unidentified flying objects were aliens.
General Glen VanHerck of the United States Air Force stated that intelligence services are studying all paths, including the possibility that the three most recent items have alien origins.
The Sunday shootdown occurred as an octagonal object with ‘possible surveillance capabilities’ flew near a key US military installation in Montana.
At 2:42 p.m., an F-16 fighter jet shot down an unidentified aerial object from a height of approximately 20,000 feet over the Great Lakes, after killing two additional aircraft over Alaska and Canada and a Chinese balloon over South Carolina.
As the Pentagon increases its surveillance of US airspace, officials cannot rule out the possibility of additional shoot-downs in the coming days.
A representative for the Department of Defense stated on the most recent object was shot down on Sunday, Based on its flight path and data, we can reasonably tie this object to the radar signal detected over Montana, which came close to key DOD sites.
The object was shot down on Sunday due to the enhanced abundance of caution. It is yet unidentified.
The disclosure that the Air Force has not ruled out the possibility that this is an alien craft follows a December report indicating that the Department of Defense had reviewed hundreds of UFO encounters by military members since last year.
Officials said that some of the objects are flying in ways they do not yet comprehend, while others are in space and underwater.
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Chinese Spy Balloon Dispute
On Friday, a U.S. military aircraft was shot down over Alaska, and on Saturday, another was shot down over Canada.
In the meantime, Republican Representative Matt Rosendale insists there is another unidentified flying object in the skies above Montana, where airspace was blocked Sunday afternoon.
The Pentagon stated that it had nothing else to add to NORAD’s Saturday evening statement.
Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat from Montana, stated on Sunday that he had been in contact with Defense officials regarding Saturday night’s events, but that he had no new information to share.
It is not immediately obvious what the object is or where it came from, but Americans have been on high alert ever since the Chinese spy balloon was shot down over the weekend, revealing Beijing’s extensive global spying program.
Defense officials said they were able to obtain significant insight into China’s spy balloon program by observing the gadget as it drifted across the country while avoiding shooting it down over the continental United States and endangering American citizens on the ground.
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