Taiwan: 11 sorties by Chinese aircraft and 10 warships around the island – how many crossed the median line

Eleven sorties by Chinese military aircraft, ten ships of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and three official vessels were detected around Taiwan by Taipei’s Ministry of National Defense in the 24 hours ending at 06:00 (local time) on Saturday, November 7. Of the 11 sorties, 9 crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered the northern and southwestern parts of the island’s air defence identification zone (ADIZ), as shown in the ministry’s briefing.

The map accompanying the announcement divides the activity into two waves. From 11:20 on Friday, November 6, 6 sorties by fighters, bombers, support aircraft and unmanned aircraft moved in a strip along the Strait, from the height of the Matsu islands to off Kinmen, and 4 of them crossed the median line. Earlier, from 06:00 to 20:05 on Friday, another 5 sorties by support aircraft and drones flew on the southwestern side, between Taiwan and the Pratas (Dongsha) islands.

Taiwan’s armed forces monitored the movements with combat air patrol aircraft, warships and coastal missile systems, the ministry says. The median line is an informal boundary in the middle of the Strait, which Beijing does not recognise, while the ADIZ is a wider identification zone and not the island’s sovereign airspace.

A week of peaks

Saturday’s figures are not the week’s highest, but they show that the pressure is not easing. On Tuesday, November 3, the ministry had counted 49 sorties, of which 31 crossed the median line. On Wednesday, November 4, it recorded 14 sorties by J-10, J-11, J-16, KJ-500 and Y-20U aircraft, 12 of which crossed the median line before continuing towards the Western Pacific for joint air and naval training, a scenario that had also been applied on October 31, with 22 sorties. On Thursday, November 5, there were 21 sorties and 19 crossed the median line.

The naval presence is also steady. Chinese Navy ships have ranged from 6 to 10 a day since the start of November, and Saturday’s ten are the highest number of the period. So-called “official ships,” that is, state vessels outside the Navy such as those of the Chinese Coast Guard, reached 8 on Thursday and Friday.

The daily record comes a few days after Taipei reported more than 100 Chinese warships and coast guard vessels in the Western Pacific. The Ministry of National Defense publishes every morning the tally of the previous 24 hours, with a map of the routes, and a comparison of the daily figures shows how Beijing alternates mild days with sharp surges.