China said it closely monitored the flight of a US surveillance plane through the Taiwan Strait on Monday, accusing the US of having “deliberately disrupted and undermined the regional situation.”
Chinese forces organised to keep an eye on the passage of the P-8A Poseidon anti-submarine patrol plane and “all matters were in hand,” the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theatre Command said in a social media posting.
China regards self-ruled Taiwan as its own territory to be brought under its control by force if necessary, and views the passage of foreign military ships and aircraft through the 160-kilometre (100-mile)-wide strait as deliberate snubs and provocations.
