Taiwan claims Chinese plane flew dangerously close to Dongying; 'China's new strategy'

The Taiwan Defence Ministry on Tuesday informed that a small Chinese civilian plane flew unusually close to a remote Taiwanese controlled island off China's coast earlier this month. They believe that this could be China's new strategy. The Ministry stated that on Feb. 6, the aircraft went quite close to Dongying, which is part of the Matsu archipelago off the coast of Fujian province in China. The ministry revealed that the aircraft was a Chinese civilian Y-12, a light twin-engined aircraft, after previously failing to identify it.

As per local media reports, Ministry spokesman Shih Shun-wen stated that they had launched a preliminary probe into the Dongyin incident and that they cannot rule out the possibility that China is employing civilian aircraft to test Taiwan's military's responses. He further said that the military will undoubtedly respond but it will also adopt a variety of contingency measures in the event of a minor incident that triggers a war.

Residents in Dongyin could see and hear the plane

Residents in Dongyin, Matsu could see and hear the plane flying close next to them, according to Taiwanese media. Since the defeated Republic of China government withdrew to Taipei in 1949 after losing a civil war to the Communists, the Matsu islands have been under Taiwanese authority. Although the Matsu islands are not as well-defended as they were until the late 1970s, Taiwan still retains military units on the islands.

For the past two years, China has been accused of exercising military action near Taiwan with China's air force primarily flying into Taiwan's air defence zone off its southwestern and southern coasts. This is referred to as "grey zone warfare" by Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory and has increased pressure on Taipei to recognise its authority.

Countermeasures on US missile upgrades to Taiwan

In the meanwhile, the United States announced plans to deliver $100 million in Patriot missile upgrades to Taiwan, which is the first US arms sale to the island since 2022 and the second under the Biden administration. It was slammed by China stating that they will take countermeasures on the US move.