Taiwan: Chinese warplanes made 159 incursions into Taiwan’s air defence zone in November according to AFP’s database, the second-highest month on record as Beijing continues to pile military pressure on the democratic island.
Self-ruled Taiwan lives under the constant threat of invasion by China, which views the island as its own territory and has vowed to seize it one day, by force if necessary.
Beijing has ramped up pressure on Taiwan since President Tsai Ing-wen came to power in 2016, as she rejects its stance that the island is part of “one China”.
Over the past 14 months, the sabre-rattling has reached new peaks after Beijing began sending an increasing number of warplanes into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone (ADIZ), which Chinese military aircraft had previously largely avoided.
The escalatory moves have heightened fears among Western allies like the United States and Japan that China could order an invasion of Taiwan, even if they consider it unlikely for now.
On Tuesday, the Pentagon unveiled plans to reinforce deployments and bases directed at China, upgrading and expanding military facilities in Guam and Australia.
Taiwan’s defence ministry began making the Chinese warplane incursions into the ADIZ public in September 2020 and AFP has built a database collecting details of the flights, which have been increasing in both size and frequency.
November was the third month in a row where more than 100 warplanes have made forays.
The incursions last month included 100 by fighter jets and nine by China’s nuclear-capable H6 bombers.
