Advertisement
Advertisement
China’s military
Get more with myNEWS
A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you
Learn more
Most of the PLA’s more than 450 sorties towards Taiwan since January have concentrated on the southwestern part of the island’s air defence identification zone. Photo: EPA-EFE

Why Chinese military flights towards Taiwan prefer southwestern zone

  • There is a strategic objective to the PLA flight paths but the needs of commercial airliners may also have a part to play
  • Most of the record number of sorties head towards the southwest of the island’s air defence identification zone
The PLA air force’s frequent flights towards Taiwan focus on the southwest of the self-ruled island’s air defence identification zone because of air control commitments and the geography of Taiwan’s central mountain range.
A record number of PLA aircraft have flown more than 450 sorties across the Taiwan Strait since January – mostly towards the island’s southwest – with 149 flights in the first four days of October, compared to 380 in the whole of last year.

00:00

Taiwan denounces mainland China for ‘over the top’ flights into island’s air defence zone

Taiwan denounces mainland China for ‘over the top’ flights into island’s air defence zone

“But why do the PLA aircraft just fly to the southwest, no other areas?” said Lu Li-shih, a former instructor at Taiwan’s Navy Academy in Kaohsiung.

“It is because there is a gap in the southwest, in Taiwan’s Central Mountain Range that is less than 3,000 metres (9,840ft) above sea level [the lowest point in the range], which allows the PLA’s aircraft radar system to glimpse Taiwan’s airbases in eastern Hualien and Taitung.”

Flying records issued by the Taiwanese defence ministry over the past few years showed the mainland aircraft included the KJ-500 with early warning and control systems, J-16 fighters, H-6K bombers, Su-30 fighters and others, indicating the drills were also aimed at collecting data on the island’s terrain and landscapes.

Graphic: Brian Wang

The island’s air force has two underground hangers in Hualien and Taitung where up to 400 fighter jets could avoid a PLA first strike, thanks to the 500km (310 miles) of mountain coverage, with an average height of more than 3,000 metres, Taiwanese media has reported.

Beijing – which considers Taiwan as part of its territory, to be reunited with the mainland by force if necessary – has been conducting the “island encirclement” patrols since late 2016, when Tsai Ing-wen from the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party first took office as Taiwanese president.

Tsai angered Beijing when she refused to recognise the 1992 consensus, which accepts the one-China principle without specifying what it stands for.

Timeline: Taiwan’s relations with mainland China under Tsai Ing-wen

In addition to its strategic objectives, the PLA is also making life easier for civilian aircraft by concentrating on Taiwan’s southwest, flying either close to the Taiwanese-controlled Pratas Island in the south or heading to the Bashi Channel, a key waterway which separates Taiwan from the Philippines and the Pacific from the South China Sea.

Defence and civil aviation experts say the drills and flight paths of PLA aircraft are carefully planned to avoid disrupting civilian travel in the busy airspace over the Taiwan Strait and the East China Sea.

“In the past, once PLA fighter jets took off from airbases in Fujian, all civil airliners in the province would be grounded for up to four hours to give way, causing great impact and economic loss to both domestic and international flights,” said Zhou Chenming, a researcher from the Yuan Yang military science and technology institute in Beijing.

Li Jiaxiang, former head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, told state media in an interview in 2011 that the military controlled 80 per cent of the airspace, whereas in the US less than 20 per cent is federally controlled.

A past lack of transparency and communication, as well as the dominance of military officials in the country’s Central Air Traffic Management Committee (CATMC) had led to unpredictable and long hours for air control staff as well as flight delays for China’s rapidly growing civil aviation industry, according to Qi Qi, an associate professor at Guangzhou Civil Aviation College.

“The unfair situation sparked an outcry in the civil aviation industry, pushing the central government to invite some leaders from civil airways to join the CATMC a few years ago,” Qi said.

“After several years of negotiation, the PLA and civil aviation industry reached their air control commitments by coming out with a series of comprehensive and flexible measures to prevent conflicts.”

23:20

Talking Post: Kevin Rudd unpacks the risk of war between China and the US with Yonden Lhatoo

Talking Post: Kevin Rudd unpacks the risk of war between China and the US with Yonden Lhatoo

According to Zhou, PLA warplanes no longer fly to the north of the Taiwan Strait to avoid disrupting civilian flights. “It is the busy area for domestic airliners shuttling between Fujian airports and Shanghai, Hangzhou, and other coastal cities.”

PLA aircraft are also constrained in the south, where they head west to avoid entering the world’s busiest airspace over Hong Kong.

“Compared with the Taiwan Strait and the East China Sea, airspace in southwest Taiwan is big enough for the PLA aircraft and warships to conduct training and other military activities,” Zhou said.

Qi said it was not clear how much airspace had been given over to the civil aviation industry in air control rights, but there had been fewer flight delays caused by military exercises in recent years. “One of the reasons is the drastic decrease in international flights to China amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: PLA sorties shaped by geography and needs of air traffic
52