As we enter 2021, the frequency of Chinese Communist Party military aircraft disturbing Taiwan continues unabated. A Chinese Yun-8 Far Caster (long-range support jammer) entered Taiwan’s southwest airspace on Jan. 5. According to a Taiwan Ministry of National Defense announcement, this was the fourth consecutive day this year that a Chinese Communist Party military aircraft entered Taiwan’s southwest airspace, an airspace that has become a major target for Chinese military aircraft intrusion.
According to a tweet from Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense, the Chinese transport-8 farcaster entered Taiwan’s southwestern airspace on Tuesday and was subsequently dispersed by a Taiwan Air Force broadcast and continuously tracked and monitored with anti-aircraft missiles.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense spokesman Shih Shun-Wen told the media Dec. 31 that about 380 Chinese Communist military aircraft had infested Taiwan’s southwest air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in 2020 as of the end of December. He said the southwest airspace is different from the usual and the most heavily intruded airspace compared to the past.
Speaking to the media at a press conference held by Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense on Tuesday, Shi reemphasized that Chinese military aircraft had infiltrated Taiwan’s southwest airspace as many as 380 times last year. In its year-end report, “The 2020 Communist Party of China Annual Report,” released at the end of the year, the National Defense Research Institute, a think tank of Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense, noted that the Chinese Communist Party has significantly increased its military activities in the Taiwan Strait region due to factors such as the continued deterioration of U.S.-China relations and the warming of Taiwan-U.S. relations, especially as Chinese military aircraft have made the highest number of intrusions into Taiwan’s southwestern airspace since 1996.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense spokesman Shi Shunwen said that the Chinese Communist Party has never given up forcefully committing crimes against Taiwan, and some threatening actions by the military have continued, including sending aircraft and ships to intrude into Taiwan’s southwest airspace, using gray-area tactics to exert pressure and provoke, seriously impacting the regional situation and cross-strait peace.
He said Chinese planes targeting the southwest airspace “are designed to test our military’s response, put pressure on our air defense system, and squeeze the airspace in which we operate.
The report by the National Defense Research Institute of Taiwan concluded that the main reasons for the frequent intrusion of Chinese military aircraft into Taiwan’s southwestern airspace last year include the fact that the center line of the strait does not extend to the southwestern air defense identification zone, and that Chinese military aircraft entered the area to test Taiwan’s response and exert pressure on the one hand, and to use it as a breakthrough in an attempt to expand their sphere of influence by entering the southwestern air defense identification zone on a regular basis.
The report argues that the Chinese Communist Party’s intense military intimidation of Taiwan has caused Taiwan to rethink the importance of national defense internally and has further strengthened the legitimacy of U.S. offensive weapons sales to Taiwan.
China believes that the passage of U.S. warships through the Taiwan Strait, the increased level of visits by U.S. officials to Taiwan, and the arms sales to Taiwan are all false signals to the “Taiwan independence” forces and are a serious threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
China declared that Taiwan and its affiliated islands are part of China’s territory, adding that “the presence of Chinese military aircraft and warships around the Taiwan Strait is fully justified and legal, and China is capable of thwarting all ‘Taiwan independence’ secessionist activities.
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