China flies seven PLA military aircraft over Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone

In another incursion into its sovereign territory by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), as many as seven military aircraft encroached on the self-ruled island's air defence identification zone (ADIZ) on Tuesday. Five People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) Shenyang J-16 fighter jets, one Shaanxi Y-8 electronic warfare plane, and one Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine warfare aeroplane flew into the southwest corner of Taiwan's ADIZ, Taiwan's Ministry of National Defence (MND) said. In response to the incursion, Taiwan's fighter jets intercepted the PLA aircraft and sent broadcast radio warnings. The island’s military deployed air defence missile systems to track the PLAAF planes, Taiwan News reported.  

Since the new year began, Taiwan has reported at least nine Chinese aircraft entering its identification zone so far, which includes five fighter jets and four spotter planes. The PRC has increased the use of grey zone tactics since September of last year. It has sent dozens of aircraft into Taiwan's ADIZ ramping up the aggression against the territory for vouching support from the West, particularly the United States. China has vowed to take back Taiwan under the “One China” policy, occasionally reiterating with “coercion and force” if necessary in a warning to Western nations that have stepped up bilateral ties with the island.

Such incursions have been more commonly reported in the southwest corner of the zone, and Chinese planes fly into the Bashi Channel separating Taiwan from the Philippines before they head back into the Pacific. Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence in its report stated that China has sent more than 680 military planes into the ADIZ in the year 2021. It is to be noted that Taiwan's ADIZ isn’t similar to the territorial air space but it is the island’s self-declared airspace monitored by its military for national security purposes. Taiwan has been complaining about several such encroachments for over months into its ADIZ by China's air force. 

Why are tensions high between Beijing and Taipei?

The Chinese military claims that it carries out "naval and air force combat readiness patrol in the direction of the Taiwan Strait,” but Taiwan has labelled such sorties as a “violation of its territorial sovereignty and national security.” "The army will continue to be on high alert and take all necessary measures to counter, at any time, any interference by external forces and any conspiracy by separatists aiming at the so-called 'Taiwan independence,’” a spokesperson for the Eastern Theatre Command of the People's Liberation Army had earlier told the state-affiliated media. 

A US Congressional delegation had also visited Taipei twice to pledge support for Taiwanese lawmakers. "Taiwan will continue to step up cooperation with the United States in order to uphold our shared values of freedom and democracy, and to ensure peace and stability in the region,” Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen told the conference.