BEIJING: China protested on Thursday after two American jet fighters landed at an air base in Taiwan, which Beijing regards as its own territory, reportedly for the first time in 30 years.

Two US F-18 fighter jets made an emergency landing at an air force base in the southern city of Tainan on Wednesday, with US authorities saying one of the planes had developed a mechanical failure.

“We have launched solemn representations with the US,” Hua Chunying, a foreign ministry spokeswoman, told a regular briefing in Beijing.

“We require the US to abide by the ‘One-China Policy’ and the three joint communiques between China and the US and to prudently deal with the relevant issue,” she added, referring to agreements between the two that recognise Beijing as the sole government of China.

Taiwanese media desc­ribed the landing as the first of its kind since the mid-1980s and speculated that it could have been a US reaction to an unprecedented People’s Liberation Army Air Force exercise over the western Pacific Ocean east of Taiwan.

Several Chinese aircraft on Monday flew over the ocean for the first time via the Bashi Channel, which runs between Taiwan and the Philippines, Beijing’s official Xinhua news agency said.

Mark Zimmer, spokesman for the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) — the de facto US embassy — said the planes had been on a “routine flight” when one encountered a mechanical problem and requested an emergency landing.

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2015

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