TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Intrusions by Chinese military aircraft into Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in June dropped slightly by 12% from May, but there were reports of Chinese fighter jets and Russian frigates coming unusually close to Taiwan's continuous zone in June.
In April, 109 Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) military planes breached Taiwan's ADIZ, a 12.8% decrease from the 125 reported by the Ministry of National Defense (MND) in May.
On Monday (May 1), Damien Symon, an open-source intelligence expert, uploaded a map on Twitter showing the location of 109 intrusions by PLAAF aircraft into Taiwan's ADIZ. The majority of encroachments occurred along the median line and in the southwest and southeast corners of the zone.
China's Shandong aircraft carrier was detected southwest of Taiwan on June 21. That same day, the MND announced that it had tracked 19 Chinese military aircraft and five naval vessels between June 20 and 21.
On June 24, Taiwan's military detected another 19 Chinese military aircraft, including Chengdu J-10 and Shenyang J-16 fighter jets. Of these 19 aircraft, eight crossed the Taiwan Strait Median Line and approached Taiwan's contiguous zone, which is 24 nautical miles off of the country's coast.
During a regularly-scheduled press conference, Joint Operations Planning Office Director Major General Lin Wen-huang (林文皇) emphasized that if any aircraft or "entities" of the PLA fail to heed warnings and forcibly enter Taiwan's airspace and territorial waters, the armed forces will "strike back in self-defense to resolutely safeguard the security of Taiwan's airspace and territorial waters."
At 9 p.m. on June 27, the Facebook page Taiwan ADIZ reported that fishermen witnessed two Russian Steregushchiy class light frigates 26 nautical miles (48 km) off the coast of Yilan County's Dong'ao. It is rare for foreign naval vessels to come so close to Taiwan's 24-nautical-mile contiguous zone.
A chart created by Ben Lewis, an independent defense analyst, shows that the trend line for violations by Chinese combat aircraft of Taiwan's ADIZ continued to dip from the spike seen in April. The number of days Taiwan's ADIZ was violated by PLAAF aircraft remained steady at 26 in both May and June.
The approximate total of PLAAF sorties into Taiwan's ADIZ from 2018 to 2023 has reached 3,955. The following GIF shows the locations of violations by Chinese aircraft in the ADIZ from January to June 2023.
Mid-year visual detailing Chinese aircraft incursions into Taiwan's ADIZ through Jan - June 2023 pic.twitter.com/piClT0cZ58
— Damien Symon (@detresfa_) July 3, 2023
