TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Ministry of National Defense (MND) said late Tuesday morning (Oct. 31) that it had detected an additional 23 Chinese military aircraft in Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ) since its report earlier the same day.

The defense ministry said that 11 People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) military aircraft and six People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) vessels were tracked around Taiwan between 6 a.m. Monday (Oct. 30) and 6 a.m. Tuesday (Oct. 31). Of the detected aircraft, four had crossed the median line or entered the southwest sector of the ADIZ.

However, at 11:30 a.m., the MND posted a rare late-morning update saying that additional PLAAF planes had been detected around Taiwan. The aircraft types included Sukhoi Su-30, Shenyang J-11, and Shenyang J-16 fighter jets; Xi'an Y-20 aerial refueling aircraft; Xi'an H-6 bombers; Shaanxi KJ-500 early warning and control aircraft (KJ-500 AEW&C); Shaanxi Y-8 and Y-9 planes; and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Of the tracked aircraft, 23 crossed the median line or entered the southwest sector of Taiwan's ADIZ. The MND said the Chinese military aircraft conducted joint combat readiness patrols with PLAN ships.

The defense ministry said it is closely monitoring the situation with its intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance system and, in response, scrambled combat patrol aircraft, dispatched naval vessels, and deployed land-based air defense missile systems.

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."