Two years ago, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry reported more than 380 incursions by Chinese military aircraft into the identification and air defense zone. [ADIZ] of the island… And he was already talking about a record, stressing that such activity undermined the potential of his air force. But that was just the beginning of a trend that only grew stronger.
In fact, 960 incursions were recorded near Taiwan in 2021, with a “peak” observed on October 1 of this year. [soit à l’occasion de l’anniversaire de la République populaire de Chine]. On this day the People’s Liberation Army [APL] had sent a total of 38 aircraft there, including J-16 and Su-30 fighters and H-6 bombers.
But according to the latest figures released by Taipei on Jan. 2, the number of Chinese airstrikes has practically doubled in 2022, with a total of 1,727 Chinese planes spotted in Taiwan’s ADIZ. This activity probably would not have seen such a surge if Nancy Pelosi, then Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, had not visited Taiwan last August. Unless that visit served as an excuse for Beijing to increase military pressure on the island.
Be that as it may, the attacks by Chinese fighter jets increased from 538 to 1241… While those of the H-6 bombers increased from 60 to 101. On December 12, 18 were observed near Taiwan.
According to a recent Pentagon report to Congress on Chinese military capabilities, sending large formations of PLA aircraft to Taiwan’s ADIZ has become commonplace since Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. On December 25, 71 aircraft were again sighted there by the Taiwanese air defense…
This – very sustained – activity by the Chinese Air Force is mainly aimed at exploiting the – limited – potential of their Taiwanese counterparts and testing their responsiveness, putting them on almost permanent alert … as well as sending messages to the United States, who remain Taiwan’s most important allies.
As a reminder, the Taiwan Air Force is targeting a hundred F-16s [progressivement portés au standard F-16 « Viper », le dernier développé par Lockheed-Martin]about fifty Mirage 2000 and 128 F-CK-1 Ching-Kuo, a locally developed fighter aircraft.