Over 100 PLA warplanes set new record in drill around Taiwan island

A fighter jet attached to the PLA Air Force Xi'an Flying College takes off at sunset during an around-the-clock training mission on August 19, 2023. Photo:China Military

A record-breaking more than 100 aircraft of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) were spotted around the island of Taiwan within 24 hours on Sunday and Monday. The sightings, which came after 20 PLA vessels, also broke their respective record last week. Experts say this shows that PLA exercises around the Taiwan island have reached a new level.

The defense authority on the island of Taiwan said in a press release on Monday that it detected 103 PLA aircraft and nine PLA vessels around the island from Sunday morning to Monday morning, with 40 of the detected aircraft, including Su-30, J-10 and J-16 fighter jets, YU-20 tanker aircraft and KJ-500 early warning aircraft, crossing the so-called median line of the Taiwan Straits or entered the island's self-proclaimed southwest and southeast air defense identification zones.

It was the highest number of PLA aircraft that has been recorded in a single day around the island of Taiwan, observers said.

According to flight paths provided by the island's defense authority, the PLA warplanes covered both ends of the Taiwan Straits and flew to the east side of Taiwan island.

Dispatching a complete array of more than 100 aircraft to a same region in one day usually indicates a large-scale operational level campaign, Fu Qianshao, a Chinese mainland military aviation expert, told the Global Times on Monday.

Such a large number of forces and their large-scale joint operation indicates that the PLA's combat-oriented exercises around the island of Taiwan have reached a new level, and can be turned into real action at any time if necessary, Fu said.

Only less than a week ago, on September 12, the defense authority on the island of Taiwan said that 20 PLA vessels were detected around the island of Taiwan over the previous day, which also set a new record for PLA vessel activity around the island.

More than a dozen PLA warshipsincluding the aircraft carrier Shandongheld a five-day exercise in the West Pacific waters to the east side of the island of Taiwan from September 11 to Friday, according to releases from the defense authority on the island of Taiwan and Japan's Ministry of Defense Joint Staff.

Both the record-breaking aircraft exercise and warship exercise were not announced by the PLA, and analysts said that such sudden, large-scale exercises could reflect that the PLA is able to deploy powerful, large scale concerted forces that can complete missions within a short period.