Was it Beijing testing Taiwan’s defences with unidentified Matsu island flyover?
- An unidentified aircraft recently flew over a Taipei-controlled island off the mainland’s southeastern Fujian province
- Intrusion could be part of the PLA’s ‘grey zone’ warfare tactics to test the Taiwanese military’s response, says former Taiwan air force general
Residents of Tungyin, a frontline islet under Taiwan’s Matsu islands cluster, said they spotted an unidentified aircraft flying overhead at 2.45pm on February 5, while video footage from the watchtower monitor showed an aircraft crossing the skies and flying out towards the east.
The military commanding centre of Tungyin confirmed that “a fixed-wing twin-propeller aircraft [had] briefly entered the airspace and soon left”.
It said air-defence troops stationed on the island “had closely monitored the process throughout”, but failed to give details on what type of aircraft it was, its take-off and landing points, or what kinds of action had been taken to deal with the intrusion.
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Taiwan denounces mainland China for ‘over the top’ flights into island’s air defence zone
However, those warplanes stayed within the southwest ADIZ and did not fly over mainland Taiwan or its adjacent islets, and the Taiwanese military responded by scrambling fighter jets for expulsion and monitoring, according to the island’s defence ministry.