TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A total of 32 Chinese military aircraft and nine People’s Liberation Army Navy vessels were detected around Taiwan by 6 a.m. on Saturday (Aug. 26).

Twenty of the planes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or entered the southwest, southeast, and northeast sectors of the air defense identification zone (ADIZ). The aircraft included a Tengden TB-001 drone, a Harbin BZK-005 drone, two Sukhoi Su-30s, eight Chengdu J-10s, a CH-4 reconnaissance drone, four Xian JH-7, a Shaanxi Y-8, Shaanxi KJ-500, and the Shaanxi Y-9.

In response, the nation’s armed forces “monitored the situation and tasked CAP (combat air patrol) aircraft, Navy vessels, and land-based missile systems to respond to these activities,” according to the Ministry of National Defense (MND).

Furthermore, Reuters reported that 13 Chinese military aircraft entered Taiwan's "response zone" on Friday (Aug. 24), while five ships carried out combat readiness response patrols. The country's response zone is not publicly declared but is thought to be centered on the Taiwan Strait and to the main island's south and southwest.

The latest incursions follow the U.S. State Department approval for the possible sale of F-16 Infrared Search and Track (IRST) systems and equipment to Taiwan worth approximately US$500 million (NT$ 15.91 billion).

Since September 2020, Beijing has increasingly employed the use of "gray zone tactics" in the form of deployments of military aircraft and naval vessels over the median line and inside Taiwan's ADIZ. According to CSIS, gray zone tactics are “an effort or series of efforts beyond steady-state deterrence and assurance that attempts to achieve one’s security objectives without resorting to direct and sizable use of force."



Flight paths of PLA aircraft. (MND image)