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China’s military
ChinaMilitary

People’s Liberation Army boasts of increased reach in the skies before Taiwan Strait crisis

  • An article in the Chinese military’s official newspaper says the air force has been operating in ‘previously unreachable areas’
  • Advanced fighter jets were recently sent across the median line in the Taiwan Strait

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A Chinese pilot pictured during an exercise near Taiwan last week. Photo: Xinhua
Liu Zhen
The People’s Liberation Army has said it had expanded its air control to “previously unreachable” areas before the recent Taiwan Strait crisis.
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Its most advanced J-20 fighters have repeatedly been scrambled to “check and identify foreign military aircraft entering our East China Sea Air Defence Identification Zone”, most recently in late July, the official newspaper PLA Daily reported on Wednesday.
J-20s also took part in the recent mass crossings of the median line in the Taiwan Strait in the wake of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island earlier this month.

Following last week’s exercise, the PLA said it would “keep a close eye on the changing situation … and organise combat and surveillance patrols in the direction of the Taiwan Strait in a regular manner”, which was interpreted as an announcement that the PLA would establish a “new normal” presence beyond its previous range and effectively wipe out the median line.

In addition to circling Taiwan, the air force has also established an air defence identification zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea, conducts regular patrols over the South China Sea, held training exercises over the Pacific and with their Russian counterparts, the PLA Daily article said.

The article said the air force was now “flying the routes that had not been flown and accessing the airspace that had never been reached” as it became capable of carrying out “both defensive and offensive operations”.

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