Taiwan is reporting the largest volume of Chinese military activity around the country this year that comes just as Taipei announced combat readiness drills.
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00:00Taiwan is reporting the highest amount of Chinese military activity around the country
00:04this year.
00:06The Defense Ministry says a total of 59 Chinese military aircraft and drones were spotted
00:12operating around the country between Monday and Tuesday.
00:15Forty-three of the aircraft flew closer and breached the country's Air Defense Identification
00:20Zone or ADIZ.
00:22Taiwan's military has deployed its own aircraft and released rare images of Chinese drones
00:28flying around the country.
00:30The increase in military activity comes as Taiwan undergoes combat readiness drills with
00:35China carrying out its own military patrols shortly after.
00:41For more on the increased military activity in and around Taiwan, our defense reporter
00:45Jaime O'Conn spoke to Ben Lewis, co-founder of PLA Tracker, which monitors Chinese military
00:51activity around Taiwan.
00:54It looks like China and Taiwan are trading in military exercises and now we're hearing
00:58that 59 Chinese military aircraft were spotted operating around the country.
01:03Is this exchange of exercises something we're going to see more of?
01:06I think it's probably likely that China is going to try and match Taiwan's readiness
01:11drills with its own drills.
01:13I think it's something we've seen them do in the past, kind of at a smaller scale.
01:16If Taiwan is doing like a local drill, PLA activity would be kind of more centralized
01:20around that area where they were doing it.
01:22I think it makes sense that if Taiwan is doing kind of these little Hong Kong, these
01:25general readiness drills, I think it's very apt that a gray zone transition to conflict
01:30is being met with a significant increase in gray zone pressure by Beijing.
01:33What we saw today was UAVs operating around the island doing kind of half circumnavigations.
01:39Likely if there's activity on the east side of Taiwan, sending a UAV out to that side
01:43is a very good signal to say, hey, we can see you over here too, but also to collect
01:46that kind of practical intelligence.
01:48So I think it's always a mix.
01:50There's increasing focus on the practical necessity of we need to be training effectively
01:54on the part of the PLA, but the political component can't be understated.
01:58I mean, it's all about signaling from Beijing.
02:00When we analyze these kinds of incursions, different kinds of aircraft and ships and
02:05now drones, is this a new kind of military pressure that we're seeing from Beijing?
02:09Well, I think that it's kind of an amplified version of what we've had for a very long
02:14time, which is that when Beijing perceives a political development involving Taiwan as
02:18negative, it demonstrates its displeasure by flexing its muscles around Taiwan.
02:24And so I think the Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson coming out and saying this is a punishment
02:28for separatist kind of collusion with outside external parties and seemingly the United
02:33States and then statements made by President Lai, it's what we see every time they do a
02:38major drill.
02:39Joint Sword 2024 A and B were related to perceived secessionist remarks that were made by President
02:45Lai, obviously going back to August 2022, April 2023 again, when you see there's a clear
02:50political relationship.
02:51So I think to have a drill of this size, or at least in this case, seemingly two joint
02:56patrols in one day, they have the capacity to ramp up the pressure and seemingly that's
03:01what they're signaling they're going to do.
03:03We've seen China really stepping up the number of incursions around Taiwan, first in about
03:092021 and then again in 2024.
03:12From your perspective, is this tactic working?
03:16Since May, since President Lai's inauguration, we haven't had a month with less than 200
03:19aircraft in the ADIZ.
03:21200 aircraft in the ADIZ two years ago would have been major news.
03:25I would have been on here talking about it.
03:29I think in terms of the practical effect, yes, it's putting a strain on Taiwan's armed
03:33forces.
03:34Yes, they've had to change the scramble policy now at least two times, if not three times.
03:40Also for China, there's a practical training benefit that we know is happening.
03:45They're cementing their position around Taiwan.
03:47Now it's not surprising to see aircraft on all sides of the island every single day.
03:51Again, that used to be a huge deal.
03:53They've succeeded in altering the status quo.