TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Ministry of National Defense (MND) said Friday (Dec. 15) that it had detected an additional 10 Chinese military aircraft in Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ) since its report earlier the same day.

The defense ministry said that 12 People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) military aircraft and nine People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) vessels were tracked around Taiwan between 6 a.m. Thursday (Dec. 14) and 6 a.m. Friday (Dec. 15). Of the 12 PLAAF aircraft, one BZK-005 reconnaissance drone crossed the Taiwan Strait median line and one Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine warfare plane entered the southwest sector of the ADIZ.

However, at 11 a.m., the MND posted an update saying that additional PLAAF planes had been detected around Taiwan since 9 a.m. The aircraft types included Chengdu J-10 fighter jets, Shenyang J-16 fighter jets, Shaanxi Y-8 planes, Xi'an H-6 bombers, Shaanxi KJ-500 early warning and control aircraft (KJ-500 AEW&C), and drones.

Of these aircraft, 10 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."