There seems to be confusion about the issue of Chinese military aircraft making incursions against Taiwan. Non-military aircraft fly to Taiwan several times each day. There is a vast amount of air travel across the Taiwan Strait, a product of large amounts of commerce and tourism. A rub is sometimes created because Taiwan is not a member of the International Civil Aviation Organization and Taipei complains that it is excluded, even citing this as a danger. But this is not new. Contrary to what is sometimes reported, Chinese warplanes do not overfly Taiwan or fly into what should be called Taiwan’s airspace. Chinese military planes enter what is called Taiwan’s air defence identification zone or ADIZ, where flights are monitored for safety and other reasons. Taiwan’s ADIZ was established by the United States after the second world war, and it includes the Taiwan Strait and even protrudes into three of mainland China’s provinces. Thus, it is natural that Chinese military aircraft enter it. Another matter is the so-called median line, an invisible marker in the middle of the Taiwan Strait that air force planes from both sides long did not cross. But the inviolability of this line was never rendered into a formal agreement, and China recently claimed that no such line exists. Thus, it could be said that China has repudiated a relevant but informal practice. The incursion issue stems mainly from the fact that Chinese air force planes have been flying into Taiwan’s ADIZ and across the median line in large numbers . That could be a factor of the size of China’s air force and its increased number of planes. More likely, it relates to heightened tensions with Taiwan. The ruling Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan often rallies voters during election campaigns with invectives against China based on local sentiment, and this angers China’s leaders. The level of provocation usually diminishes after election day. This was not the case in 2020, and now there is anxiety about the next election in Taiwan in 2022. On the mainland, nationalist sentiment has grown. The military, which by its nature is hostile towards Taiwan, has been more aggressive in challenging the island’s claims of sovereignty , and the military influences the Communist Party’s decisions. John F. Copper, Stanley J. Buckman Professor (emeritus), International Studies, Rhodes College