The air force should intercept and drive away Chinese warplanes and warships as soon as they reach Taiwan’s outlying islands or the median line of the Taiwan Strait, rather than monitoring or responding only when the enemy is too close, a former air force deputy commander said on Sunday.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command on Saturday said that a “joint naval and air war-readiness patrol” would be launched around Taiwan that same day.
The announcement was made one day after Vice President William Lai (賴清德) returned from a trip to Paraguay, which included stopovers in the US.
Photo: Taiwan Military News Agency via AP
From 6am on Saturday to 6am on Sunday, 45 of the PLA’s warplanes and nine of its warships were detected around Taiwan, Ministry of National Defense data showed.
Of the aircraft, 27 crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait: nine Su-30, four J-11 and 12 J-10 fighters, as well as one Y-9 military transport aircraft and one Z-9 utility aircraft. The Y-9 and Z-9 advanced farther than the fighters, entering Taiwan’s southwest air defense identification zone, the ministry said.
Retired lieutenant general Chang Yen-ting (張延廷) said the military exercises were different from previous sorties.
“This time, the military exercises were launched on the same day that the announcement was made. Unlike previous ones, they did not announce in advance the coordinates of the areas where military exercises would be conducted and how long they would last. This could be the new norm,” Chang said.
Video footage of the military exercises released by official Chinese media mainly showed images of the navy and air force, not of the army and its Rocket Force, meaning the PLA is focused on air and sea supremacy, Chang said.
The PLA also released videos in which it stressed its capabilities in conducting military exercises in waters very close to Taiwan proper, he said.
“They are conducting military exercises and propaganda at the same time. Long before the military exercises began, they were prepared to conduct cognitive, psychological and media warfare along with the military drills,” Chang said.
China was playing the same old tune when justifying its actions, as the exercises targeted pro-Taiwan independence forces, he added.
The video that Taiwan’s navy produced to counter China’s cognitive warfare would only have a limited effect, Chang said.
“We allowed warships to come very close to the contiguous zone and are only guarding the 12 nautical miles [22km] of territorial sea. Chinese warships would not be driven away unless they reached the median line. A complete lack of deep defense strategy would only allow the enemy to push further and intrude on our territory. Such a video would not produce much of an effect,” he said.
The strategy of surveilling and only driving away Chinese warplanes and warships when they are close is problematic, he said.
“Instead of responding in advance while the enemy is still far away, our surveillance begins only when they are already at our doorstep. A response at the last line of defense would only expose our shortcomings,” Chang said.
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