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On Tuesday, Taiwan’s air defence identification zone (ADIZ) was breached by seven military aircraft of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
According to the Ministry of National Defense of Taiwan, five People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) Shenyang J-16 fighter planes, one Shaanxi Y-8 electronic warfare plane, and one Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine warfare plane flew into the southwest corner of the ADIZ (MND).
Taiwan despatched planes to track the PLAAF jets, blasted radio warnings, and deployed air defence missile systems, according to Taiwan News.
Nine Chinese planes have been spotted in Taiwan’s identification zone so far this month, including five fighter jets and four spotter planes.
Since September of last year, China has intensified its use of grey zone tactics by sending aircraft into Taiwan’s ADIZ on a regular basis, with the majority of incidents occurring in the zone’s southwest corner.
A country’s Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) is a zone that extends outside its airspace. It’s where air traffic controllers ask planes to identify themselves.
Gray zone conflicts are operations by a state that are injurious to another state and are commonly referred to as acts of war, but are not legally defined as such.
As tensions mount over significant political events on both sides of the Taiwan Strait in 2022, the number of flights is projected to increase even more, according to Taiwan News.
Despite the fact that the two sides have been ruled separately for almost seven decades, Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan, a democracy off mainland China’s southeast coast with a population of over 24 million people.
Taipei, on the other hand, has countered Chinese aggression by bolstering strategic ties with democracies such as the United States, which Beijing has constantly resisted. If Taiwan declares independence, China has sworn to fight it.
