The People’s Liberation Army sent more than a dozen planes near Taiwan on Friday as part of Beijing’s continued push to put pressure on the island’s defences. A PLA aircraft carrier strike group was also conducting exercises in the area, monitored by Japanese self-defence forces . Taiwan’s defence ministry said on Saturday that 18 PLA aircraft entered the island’s air defence identification zone in the Taiwan Strait and southeast of the island. In line with its previous responses, the Taiwanese air force scrambled fighters and tracked the incoming plane with air defence missiles, the ministry said. The planes involved in Friday’s sorties were six J-16 fighters, six J-11 fighters, two H-6 bombers, two KJ-500 early warning and control aircraft, one Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft and one Y-8 electronic warfare and surveillance aircraft, the ministry said. The H-6 bombers and Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft flew along the south of the Taiwan Strait, crossed the Bashi Channel and turned to the southeast off Taiwan before returning via the same route, according to a map supplied by the ministry. At the same time, the strike group for the PLA’s Liaoning aircraft carrier was exercising in the waters further east of the island, according to the Japanese Ministry of Defence. The Liaoning was photographed operating its ship-borne J-15 fighters and Z-18 helicopters. The USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group was also deployed in the nearby Philippine Sea. Concerns that Beijing could use force against Taiwan have grown since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Some US politicians had warned about risks to the security of the self-ruled island, and a group of US senators and congresspeople visited Taipei last month in a show of support. Beijing responded by increasing its military presence around Taiwan, carrying out a series of major naval and air force exercises in the East China Sea and the Taiwan Strait before the Liaoning led a larger than usual group to the western Pacific. The PLA has routinely patrolled around Taiwan in a show of strength in the last few years, especially as ties between Taipei and Washington have grown closer. At times of particularly high tension, the PLA sends a stronger message by sending warplanes not only into the air defence zone, but also cross the median line in the Taiwan Strait. The biggest daily air force activity this year was on January 23, when the PLA dispatched 39 planes to the air defence zone while American and Japanese forces held joint exercises south of Okinawa. It was also the biggest deployment since last October.
