Why China Keeps Sending Warplanes to Fly Near Taiwan

With the U.S. in the middle, China and Taiwan have avoided war for more than seven decades. But that balance is getting harder to maintain as Beijing becomes more assertive in its desire for reunification.Source: Bloomberg)

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By Kari Soo Lindberg and Cindy Wang

July 7, 2021 at 5:59 AM UTC

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Chinese warplanes streaking through the skies around Taiwan, once a rare sight, are showing up much more frequently. The exercises signal China’s displeasure with the island’s democratically elected government and its efforts to deepen ties with the U.S. In response to the People’s Liberation Army’s moves, the Pentagon has stepped up surveillance flights in the region, raising the risk of a confrontation between two of the world’s most powerful militaries.

China’s warplanes made incursions into the southern part of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on 87 days in 2020 -- more than in the previous five years combined -- and have surpassed that number already this year. Some of the PLA planes, including bombers, fighter jets and reconnaissance aircraft, fly east from China across the 130-kilometer (80-mile) Taiwan Strait and near the southern tip of Taiwan. Some break off and dart farther south toward tiny Pratas Island in the South China Sea before turning back. The PLA flew close to Pratas -- uninhabited except for a garrison of Taiwanese marines and coast guard officers -- roughly once a week on average between mid-September 2020 (when the Taiwanese Defense Ministry began releasing detailed data) and mid-June 2021.