Fighter aircraft from China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force now regularly appear in the airspace around Taiwan
FLIGHT GLOBAL | Published February 15, 2025
Chinese military forces in the Western Pacific are rehearsing for a campaign to force the unification of Taiwan with mainland China.
That is the conclusion of the top US military officer in the region, who spoke at the Honolulu Defense Forum in Hawaii on 13 February.
“It’s no longer training, it’s rehearsal,” said Admiral Samuel Paparo.
A fighter pilot by training, Paparo now heads the Honolulu-based US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) that overseas Washington’s military operations from India to California.
While Chinese military exercises in and around the Taiwan Strait are nothing new, Paparo says the scope and frequency of those drills indicate a fundamental change in their intent.
“Their aggressive manoeuvres around Taiwan right now are not exercises as they call them,” Paparo says. “They are rehearsals for the forced unification of Taiwan to the mainland.”
Beijing has steadily increased its military activity around the self-governing island in recent years. Last year Taiwan’s defence ministry said it tracked 153 Chinese military aircraft operating in the airspace around the island over a 24h period in October – a figure believed to be a single-day record.
More recently, a Chinese fighter aggressively intercepted an Australian Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol jet operating in international airspace over the South China Sea on 11 February, prompting a protest from Australia. Such incidents had died down following the summit between former US President Joe Biden and Chinese ruler Xi Jinping in 2022, but prior to this there were a string of similar incidents.
Chinese activity has also pushed farther east toward American territory. In October, US and Canadian air patrols intercepted a joint flight of Chinese and Russian bombers operating off the coast of Alaska – the first publicly confirmed instance of the two air forces operating together so close to North America.
The deepening cooperation between China and Russia, alongside North Korea, has been alternatively dubbed the “Axis of Autocracy” or “Triangle of Troublemakers” by American security officials and observers.
Paparo says the “increasingly complex” manoeuvres involving coordinated actions by China’s air, naval, missile and land forces demonstrate Beijing’s “clear intent and improving capability” in the military domain.
“I think we’re very close to where, on a daily basis, the fig leaf of an exercise could very well hide operational warning,” he cautions.
Paparo notes Russia used the veil of training exercises to explain its troop build-up ahead of the 2022 full-scale invasion into Ukraine, and suggests analysis tools like artificial intelligence could help peer through attempts at deception.
In contrast to Beijing’s growing readiness, the naval aviator with more than 1,100 carrier landings says Washington and its regional allies are struggling to field enough aircraft, ships and long-range precision munitions in the region to effectively counter that threat.
“Our magazines run low [and] our maintenance backlogs grow longer each month,” Paparo says.
Critical aircraft are ageing “faster than we can replace them”, he adds, with platforms increasingly operating beyond their planned service life.
“Maintenance delays impact operational availability across all domains, and our precision-guided munition stockpiles sit well below our required levels,” Paparo notes.
While he does not specify specific platforms, the Pentagon has experienced particular readiness challenges with its Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighters. An annual report on equipment performance released in January revealed F-35 availability rates that fall well below programme targets, despite some improvement in recent years.
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SOURCE: www.flightglobal.com
RELATED: China doubles military aircraft flights around Taiwan
China’s J-16 fighter jets are increasingly active around Taiwan. PHOTO: TAIWAN’S MINISTRY OF NATIONAL DEFENCE/THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN
ASIA NEWS NETWORK | Published February 15, 2025
Data indicate that China is stepping up its military pressure against Taiwan President Lai Ching-te. China is particularly hostile toward Mr. Lai as a self-described “practical worker for Taiwan independence.”
TAIPEI – The average daily number of Chinese military aircraft incursions into airspace around Taiwan has more than doubled since the launch of President Lai Ching-te’s administration in May last year, according to a Yomiuri Shimbun analysis of materials released by Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense.
The data indicate that China is stepping up its military pressure against Lai. China is particularly hostile toward Lai as a self-described “practical worker for Taiwan independence.”
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense has been releasing daily reports on the number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels detected around Taiwan since Aug. 6, 2022, during the second half of former President Tsai Ing-wen’s second term in office.
The Yomiuri Shimbun analyzed the data through the end of January this year.
In the Taiwan Strait between mainland China and Taiwan, the median line has served as a de facto border between the two sides. The line was devised by the U.S. military based on the China Mutual Defense, a treaty concluded in 1954 between the United States and Taiwan, which expired later. China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory, does not recognize its existence.
The daily average number of Chinese military aircraft that crossed the median line or entered Taiwan’s claimed air defense identification zone (ADIZ) more than doubled from 5.0 in the period from Aug. 6, 2022, during the Tsai administration to 10.6 after Lai took office.
The daily average number of Chinese military aircraft that have been detected in a wider zone, which covers the Taiwan-claimed ADIZ, slightly increased from 13.6 to 15.5. These figures suggest that the Chinese military is increasing the number of its flights in the airspace closer to Taiwan.
The Yomiuri Shimbun’s analysis also showed that the daily average number of Chinese naval vessels spotted in the Taiwan Strait and adjacent seas also increased from 5.2 to 8.1 during the same period. Following the launch of the Lai administration, vessels of the China Coast Guard, which is called China’s “second navy,” have come to be frequently spotted.
After President Lai referred to China in addresses in May and October last year, the Chinese military conducted drills in areas surrounding Taiwan. The data showed China’s deployment of a large number of aircraft and vessels on these occasions.
The data indicated China has become active on the eastern and southern sides of Taiwan.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense told The Yomiuri Shimbun that China “intends to show off to other countries that the Taiwan Strait is within its territory and intimidate Taiwan.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s administration is particularly hostile toward Lai, who said he was a “practical worker for Taiwan independence” when he was Taiwan’s premier. His predecessor, Tsai, had vowed to maintain the status quo of the China-Taiwan relationship.
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SOURCE: www.asianews.network
