TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) tracked seven Chinese military aircraft, five naval vessels, and one balloon around the country between 6 a.m. Friday (Feb. 16) and 6 a.m. Saturday (Feb. 17).

The defense ministry said that seven People’s Liberation Army (PLA) fighter jets had been detected in the Taiwan Strait. However, it did not indicate that any had entered the air defense identification zone (ADIZ) or crossed the median line.

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

In addition, the ministry said a Chinese balloon was detected in the ADIZ at 1:41 a.m. on Friday 144 km (78 NM) northwest of Keelung City at an altitude of 6,096 m (20,000 feet)

The balloon flew in an easterly direction to the north of Taiwan, disappearing at 2:33 a.m. on Friday shortly after exiting the northern sector of the ADIZ.

Thus far in February, the ministry has detected Chinese military aircraft 123 times and naval vessels 77 times. 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."

(MND image)