TAIPEI (Reuters) -&nbsp;Taiwan's&nbsp;defence&nbsp;ministry said on Wednesday it had spotted&nbsp;19&nbsp;Chinese&nbsp;air&nbsp;force&nbsp;planes&nbsp;in&nbsp;its&nbsp;air&nbsp;defence&nbsp;zone&nbsp;in the past 24 hours, part of what Taipei calls regular harassment by Beijing.
Taiwan, which China views as&nbsp;its&nbsp;own territory, has complained for the past three years or so of stepped up&nbsp;Chinese&nbsp;military activities near the island as Beijing seeks to assert&nbsp;its&nbsp;sovereignty claims.
China has said&nbsp;its&nbsp;activities in the area are justified as it seeks to defend&nbsp;its&nbsp;territorial integrity and to warn the United States against "colluding" with&nbsp;Taiwan, despite the anger this causes in Taipei.
Taiwan's&nbsp;defence&nbsp;ministry said&nbsp;19&nbsp;J-10 fighters had flown into the southwestern corner of the island's&nbsp;air&nbsp;defence&nbsp;identification&nbsp;zone, or ADIZ, though closer to the&nbsp;Chinese&nbsp;coast than&nbsp;Taiwan's according to a map the ministry released.
Taiwan's&nbsp;forces monitored the situation, including sending up&nbsp;its&nbsp;own&nbsp;air&nbsp;force&nbsp;planes, the ministry added, using the normal phrasing for&nbsp;its&nbsp;response to such&nbsp;Chinese&nbsp;incursions.
However, the&nbsp;aircraft did not cross the sensitive median line of the&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;Strait, which previously served as an unofficial barrier between the two sides but which China's&nbsp;air&nbsp;force&nbsp;has been flying over on an almost daily basis since staging war games near&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;last August.
No shots have been fired and the&nbsp;Chinese&nbsp;aircraft have been flying in&nbsp;Taiwan's ADIZ, not in&nbsp;its&nbsp;territorial&nbsp;air&nbsp;space.
The ADIZ is a broader area&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;monitors and patrols that acts to give it more time to respond to any threats.
The democratically elected&nbsp;Taiwanese government has repeatedly offered talks with China, but says the island will defend&nbsp;itself if attacked and that only the&nbsp;Taiwanese people can decide their own future.
&nbsp;
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Yimou Lee; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

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Taiwan reports 19 Chinese air force planes in its air defence zone