Chinese military planes carried out 39 incursions into Taiwan’s air defense zone on Sunday (January 23rd), according to the island’s government, the largest daily incursion since October, amid mounting military pressure from Beijing on the democratic island. Among these incursions were 24 J-16 fighters, 10 J-10 fighters and one nuclear-capable H-6 bomber.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said in a statement late Sunday that it had taken off its own planes to track the 39 Chinese planes that entered Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification (Adiz) zone. The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense began publicizing these incursions by Chinese warplanes into the Adiz in September 2020 and Agence France-presse (AFP) has compiled a database of details of these flights, which increased in size and frequency.
Death of Taiwanese pilots
The last quarter of 2021 was marked by a peak in these incursions. The month of October remains the most active with 196 incursions, including 149 in just four days, while Beijing celebrated its national holiday. The defense zone does not correspond to Taiwan’s airspace, but encompasses a much larger area that overlaps with part of China’s air defense identification zone.
Taiwan recorded 969 incursions by Chinese warplanes into its air defense zone in 2021 according to the database compiled by AFP, more than double the roughly 380 made in 2020.
Taiwan’s air force has suffered a series of fatal accidents in recent years as its aging fleet is kept under pressure by China. The Air Force temporarily grounded its fleet of F-16 fighters earlier this month after one of its F-16Vs, its most advanced fighter jets, crashed into the sea during a a training mission, killing a pilot.