China’s air force is poised to once again break the record for the number of warplanes it has sent across the median line, the midpoint of the Taiwan Strait that Beijing and Taipei previously tacitly agreed not to cross. China has been unilaterally ignoring this in recent years.
As Taiwan prepares for its presidential election—a contest in which relations with its giant neighbor always loom large—People’s Liberation Army Air Force aircraft had crossed into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) a total of 1,390 times in 2023 as of the end of September, according to data provided by Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense.
This is an increase of nearly 10 percent compared with the 1,263 incursions up to the end of September 2022 and a 43 percent rise compared with 2021.
Taiwan’s defense ministry has been been issuing reports on Chinese military activities in the Taiwan Strait since September 2020, when Beijing ended its unofficial policy of keeping to its side of the 100-mile-wide waterway and sent warplanes into Taiwan’s ADIZ following the visits of high-ranking Trump administration Cabinet officials.
China claims self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory, and Chinese President Xi Jinping has repeatedly stated that Taiwan’s eventual absorption is a top priority in his vision of “national assimilation.”
The majority of the sorties are conducted by combat aircraft like the fourth-generation Shenyang J-16 fighter, and provide Chinese pilots with training in a potential future war zone.
Beijing also demonstrates its air power around Taiwan to signal irritation. A total of 27 military aircraft buzzed Taiwan’s ADIZ on August 3, 2022, in response to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan, the first such visit in a quarter of a century.
