The flight of a Chinese civilian aircraft near a Taiwan-held island not far from the Chinese coast earlier this month was likely meant to serve as provocation or a test of Taiwan’s combat readiness, military officials said Tuesday.
Speaking at a press conference, Ministry of National Defense (MND) spokesman Shih Shun-wen (???) said the military could not rule out the possibility that China was using the civilian aircraft to test Taiwan’s response measures.
“Whether it was meant as a provocation or a test, the nation’s armed forces are always ready and have prepared contingencies for all kinds of scenarios,” he said.
The flight of the plane, which occurred on Feb. 5 and was first confirmed by the MND on Feb. 6, became an issue after Taiwanese media quoted local residents as saying that they could see and hear the aircraft clearly, implying it was in Taiwan’s territorial airspace.
Local media said the aircraft was able to enter Dongyin’s territorial airspace by successfully flying low and dodging the military’s radar, but the military has denied that allegation.
At Tuesday’s press conference, Air Force Chief of Staff Huang Chih-wei (???) identified the aircraft as a Chinese civilian Y-12 light twin-engined aircraft and said that while it was spotted near Dongyin, it did not enter Dongyin’s territorial airspace.
He said military units on the island had taken “appropriate measures to monitor the aircraft’s movements to safeguard national security,” without elaborating due to the sensitivity of the issue.
The officials at the press conference, however, did not provide a flight route for the civilian aircraft as the MND normally does when documenting Chinese military aircraft that have entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone.
A country’s territorial airspace extends 12 nautical miles from the coastline of its territory. Countries have the right to destroy any hostile aircraft which enters its territorial airspace without permission.
Dongyin, part of the Matsu archipelago under Lienchiang County, is less than 50 kilometers east of China’s Fujian Province and about 185 kilometers northwest of Keelung.
Gray-zone warfare
Taiwanese defense expert Lin Ying-yu (???) warned that in sending a civilian aircraft near Taiwan’s territorial airspace, Beijing was taking advantage of so-called gray-zone warfare, referring to the nontraditional use of force that does not meet the threshold of actual warfare.
Such tactics make it difficult for the defending nation to decide whether to answer with military force or police action, thereby prolonging the time it takes to respond to an incursion, he said.
He called on Taiwan’s military to work closely with all related government units to come up with a unified response strategy to such non-traditional threats.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel