Taiwan reports 22 Chinese military aircraft, 18 crossing the median line, in another “joint combat readiness patrol”

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said on Saturday that 22 Chinese military aircraft and drones went out to sea in the afternoon, 18 of them crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait or its extension, in what it described as another so-called “joint combat readiness patrol”.

In a statement issued at 5 p.m. on 31 October, the ministry said it began detecting the aircraft at 1:15 p.m. They included J-10 and J-16 fighters, KJ-500 airborne early warning aircraft, Y-20 tankers and drones. According to the ministry, the 18 aircraft that crossed the median line and its extension entered Taiwan’s northern, central and southwestern air defence zones and the western Pacific, operating alongside Chinese ships.

The ministry said the activity harassed the airspace and waters around Taiwan. It said Taiwan’s armed forces tracked the movements through joint intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and sent aircraft, ships and shore-based missile systems to respond. The statement gave no further detail on the Chinese ships involved and did not say how long the activity lasted.

A recurring pattern

The ministry uses the phrase “joint combat readiness patrol” for large, coordinated air and naval deployments around the island. Geopolitiki has reported earlier cases, including an operation on 20 October in which the ministry counted 27 Chinese military aircraft sorties, 21 of them crossing the median line, and one on 13 October with 19 sorties, 13 of them across the median line.

The median line is an informal boundary that Taiwan treats as the practical limit of safe separation in the Strait. Its ministry reports every crossing by Chinese military aircraft as a provocation, and publishes daily counts of aircraft, ships and balloons detected around the island.

Taiwan’s defence ministry says it will keep monitoring Chinese military activity and respond as needed. The statement did not mention any Chinese comment on the patrol, and no Chinese official statement on this activity was available at the time of writing.