TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Ministry of National Defense (MND) said early Tuesday evening (July 11) that it had detected an additional 34 Chinese military aircraft and four Chinese naval vessels around Taiwan since its report earlier the same day.

At 9 a.m., the MND said 11 People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) aircraft and four People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) vessels had been tracked around Taiwan between 6 a.m. on Monday (July 10) and 6 a.m. on Tuesday. One KA-28 anti-submarine warfare helicopter was detected in the southwest corner of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), while one Harbin Z-9 anti-submarine warfare chopper intruded on the southeast section.

At 6:30 p.m., the MND posted an update saying that since 7 a.m., 34 additional PLAAF aircraft and four more PLAN ships had been detected around Taiwan. The aircraft types included Chengdu J-10, Shenyang J-16, and Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets, as well as Xian H-6 bombers and Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft.

Of these aircraft, 29 crossed the Taiwan Strait median line or entered the southwest or southeast ADIZ. The aircraft conducted sea-air joint exercises with Chinese naval vessels in Taiwan's southeast ADIZ.

In addition, the MND said that four PLAN naval ships were deployed to carry out joint combat readiness patrols with Chinese military aircraft. The MND said it closely monitored the situation with its intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) system and, in response, scrambled combat patrol aircraft, dispatched naval vessels, and deployed land-based air defense missile systems.

China has dispatched 157 military aircraft and 55 naval ships around Taiwan so far in July.

Since September 2020, Beijing has increasingly employed the use of "gray zone tactics" in the form of deployments of military aircraft and naval vessels over the median line and inside Taiwan's ADIZ. According to CSIS, gray zone tactics are “an effort or series of efforts beyond steady-state deterrence and assurance that attempts to achieve one’s security objectives without resorting to direct and sizable use of force."