Taiwan denies reported threat from Chinese planes

Aug 22, 2011, 4:12 GMT

Taipei - A pair of fighter jets from China entered Taiwan's airspace last month but posed no security threat because they were just tracking US aircraft, a defence official said Monday.

The two Chinese Su-27 jets flew over the north-eastern boundary of Taiwan's air defence zone near Japan's outlying islands, Deputy Defence Minister Andrew Yang said.

One of the jets crossed a median line for the first time since 2008 and had to be chased off by Taiwanese F-1c6 fighters, local media reports said.

The Chinese planes were following US reconnaissance aircraft but were unable to fly high enough, the reports said.

'While one of them immediately circled back, the other crossed over the median line and did not turn back to the mainland until after two Taiwanese F-16s took off to intercept it,' the island's Central News Agency reported.

Yang said the F-16s were only monitoring the activity and did not not chase the Chinese plane off.

'It was far away from us,' Yang said. 'We were in full control of our airspace.'

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