PLA keeps US spy plane’s ‘trouble-stirring’ Taiwan Straits transit under close watch

Fighter jet attached to an aviation brigade of the air force under the PLA Northern Theater Command taxi down the runway after a combat flight training exercise on January 3, 2023. Photo: China Military

The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) kept a US spy plane under close watch when the latter flew through the Taiwan Straits on Monday, which experts said again showed that the PLA has the full control of the region and the US' move is just another provocation aimed at stirring up troubles.

PLA Eastern Theater Command on Monday organized forces, tracked and monitored a US P-8A anti-submarine patrol aircraft on high alert when the US spy plane flew through the Taiwan Straits on the day, Senior Colonel Shi Yi, a spokesperson at the PLA Eastern Theater Command, said in a statement on the day.

Everything was completely under control, Shi said.

"The US move was an intentional one aimed to disturb and sabotage regional situation, harm peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits, and we firmly oppose this," the spokesperson said.

The command troops maintain high vigilance at all time to resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, he said.

It is widely known that the PLA has the full control of the Taiwan Straits, and every time a US warship or warplane makes a transit, it would meet with PLA responses, a Beijing-based military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Monday.

The PLA holds daily exercises and patrols around the island of Taiwan. The defense authority on the island said it spotted four PLA aircraft and three PLA vessels around the island in the past 24 hours as of Monday morning.

Should a conflict break out, a vulnerable P-8A aircraft is of little military significance on China's doorstep, but the PLA should remain wary of its close-in reconnaissance attempts in peacetime, the expert said,

The US military has been frequently sending vessels and occasionally aircraft through the Taiwan Straits in the excuse of navigational rights and freedoms, but its real intention is to stir up trouble in the region and play the Taiwan card to contain China, the expert said.