38 Chinese PLA jets enter Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone on China National Day

In one of the largest incursions into its southwestern Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ), a record 38  People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) fighter jets encroached Taiwan’s airspace majorly stretching across the Taiwan Strait, including parts of the Chinese province of Zhejiang, Fujian, and Jinagxi, Ministry of National Defence, Taiwan [MND] informed in a statement on October 1. Several fighter jets including 18 Shenyang J-16 fighter jets, four SU-30 jets, two Xian H-6 bombers, and a Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine warfare (Y-8 ASW) of People’s Liberation Army entered Taiwan’s sovereign airspace near the Pratas Islands in “two separate waves,” Taiwan’s defence ministry stated.  Taiwan responded by scrambling its jets. 

Record incursion on China's National day

The activity was carried out on China National Day, celebrated on October 1, which marks the anniversary of when the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949. It is also just two days after Taiwan officially submitted an application to join the CPTPP free-trade pact, which Britain is also seeking to join. China had openly lodged an official protest against the move by Taiwan, denouncing any official exchanges between the West and Taiwan. PRC stressed that China views Taiwan as an "inseparable part of its territory." On October 1, Hong Kongers and Tibetans in Taiwan flooded the streets calling for the independence of both Tibet and Hong Kong from the Chinese communist regime, as the Taiwanese denounced China's oppression in Hong Kong, Tibet. 

Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs last week had issued a controversial statement, anguishing China with its democratic stances, as it said, "Taiwan is Taiwan, and it is not part of the People's Republic of China. The People's Republic of China has never ruled Taiwan for a single day." This spurred an immediate response from Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office that lambasted Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu for making "Taiwan independence speeches". 

"Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory and has never been a country," a statement from China's Taiwan Affairs Office read. "We are telling Joseph Wu and his likes that unification is the right way and 'Taiwan independence is a dead end. Following the trend of national rejuvenation and unification, various 'Taiwan independence' forces are like grasshoppers after autumn. All types of 'Taiwan independence' speeches are nothing but flies 'buzzing around'". 

Amid the heightened tensions between the island and Beijing, Taiwan’s Air Force detected the military plane incursion on the anti-aircraft missile tracking and monitoring radar systems and dispatched air patrol troops to intercept the PLA fighter jets. Defense Ministry for the island said that its forces broadcasted radio warnings and deployed the air defence missile systems that monitored the activity. US Federal Aviation Administration described the ADIZ as "a designated area of airspace over land or water within which a country requires the immediate and positive identification, location and air traffic control of aircraft in the interest of the country's national security."

[PLA Y-8 ASW photo released by Taiwan's Defense Ministry. Image: Taiwan R.O.C]

[PLA J-16 fighter jets for PLAA. Image: Taiwan R.O.C]

China had dismissed 'malign intentions' of the US, west on Taiwan 

Beijing has routinely deployed fighter aircraft that have invaded Taiwan’s Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) in a show of military might and belligerence towards the expansionist agendas. PLA’s incursions come in the backdrop of the US and its Western allies and partner accusing Beijing of posing “systemic challenges” to the international order. China, meanwhile, has repeatedly dismissed the “malign intentions of the United States and a few other countries” widening disputes and asserted that the era of the West “dictating international affairs is over.”

The People's Republic of China had also earlier warned the West of any attempts to seek independence for the breakaway province of Taiwan, saying that it "means war”.“ We warn the 'Taiwan independence' elements - those who play with fire will burn themselves, and Taiwan independence means war,” Chinese defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian had warned in June this year over increasing world support of Taiwan’s recognition as a democratically governed island. 

People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) aircraft first entered the southwestern corner of the ADIZ in the daytime; later, approximately 13 planes entered the island's southwest ADIZ, Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said in a statement. Chinese planes’ sortie involved flying through Taiwan’s defence zone, but when intercepted, the military planes flew towards the northeast, finally reversing their path back into the Chinese sovereign airspace. 

Image: AP