A surge in Chinese military aircraft was detected around Taiwan during a three-hour window yesterday, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said, a month before the May 20 inauguration of incoming president William Lai (賴清德).
The ministry said that from 8:15am, it detected 21 Chinese aircraft around Taiwan, including J-16 fighter jets, Y-8 medium-range transport planes and drones.
“Seventeen aircraft crossed the median line and its extension, entered our northern, central, and southwestern ADIZ [air defense identification zone], and joined PLA [People’s Libertation Army] vessels for joint combat patrol,” it said in a statement posted on X around 11:30am.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Taiwan’s armed forces “are monitoring the activities with our joint surveillance systems,” the ministry added.
The median line of the Taiwan Strait has served as a tacit border for decades, but the Chinese military has more flagrantly sent aircraft, warships and drones across it since former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August 2022. She was the highest-level US official to visit in nearly three decades.
Experts say that Beijing sending warplanes and naval vessels around Taiwan on a near-daily basis is a form of “gray zone harassment,” stopping short of an outright act of war, but enough to exhaust Taipei’s armed forces.
The record number was in September last year, when China sent 103 aircraft — 40 of which crossed the median line — within a 24-hour period.
During the two terms of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration, tensions between Beijing and Taipei have ramped up, as she and her government do not acknowledge China’s claim.
Her vice president, Lai — who used to be more outspoken about Taiwanese independence, but has moderated his views in recent years — is to come into power on May 20.
Yesterday’s show of force comes a day after China opened two new aviation routes that run close to Taiwan’s outlying islands Kinmen and Matsu, which the government said were “unilateral measures” that would increase flight safety risks.
Additionally, the airspace around Fuzhou Changle Airport — 30km from the closest outlying Taiwanese island — would be “further optimized and adjusted” on May 16, China’s civil aviation authority said on Friday.
China “may be trying to show teeth to back up” its new flight path, political analyst Sung Wen-ti (宋文笛) said, adding that “China is playing on a grand chessboard,” and the ramp-up in warplane activity could be about the South China Sea issue.
Tomorrow, the US and the Philippines are to begin joint maritime exercises which would be held beyond Philippine territorial waters for the first time, “edging ever closer towards [the] Taiwan Strait,” Sung said. The exercises would simulate retaking enemy-occupied islands in areas facing Taiwan and the South China Sea.
“By amping up military theatre near Taiwan, Beijing may seek to deter and dissuade further internationalization of the Taiwan issue in the security realm,” he added.
Yesterday’s activities were to send Beijing’s message beyond Taiwan, Institute for National Defense and Security Research conflict expert Ou Si-fu (歐錫富) said yesterday.
This “political warfare will continue until May 20 and beyond,” Ou said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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