TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) tracked 10 Chinese military aircraft and five naval vessels around the country between 6 a.m. Friday (Sept. 22) and 6 a.m. Saturday (Sept. 23).

The defense ministry said that 10 People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) military aircraft and five People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) vessels were detected. Of the aircraft, two had entered the southwest and southeast sectors of Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ).

The aircraft tracked in the ADIZ included one Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine warfare aircraft (Y-8 ASW) and one Harbin Z-9 anti-submarine warfare helicopter (Z-9 ASW). According to the flight path map, the Y-8 ASW plane flew in the southwest sector of the ADIZ, while the Z-9 ASW helicopter was detected in the southeast section of the ADIZ.

The MND said it monitored the situation with its intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance system and, in response, scrambled combat patrol aircraft, dispatched naval vessels, and deployed land-based air defense missile systems.

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."

Flight paths of PLAAF aircraft in Taiwan ADIZ as of 6 a.m. Saturday. (MND image)