TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) tracked seven Chinese naval vessels around the country between 6 a.m. Tuesday (April 30) and 6 a.m. Wednesday (May 1).

The defense ministry said seven People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) ships had been detected around Taiwan. During this timeframe, the MND said no PLA aircraft had crossed the median line or entered the southwestern air defense identification zone (ADIZ).

The ministry monitored the situation with intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems, dispatched naval vessels, and deployed land-based air defense missile systems.

In April, the ministry detected Chinese military aircraft 247 times and naval vessels 176 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."