China Tests Both Taiwan and the U.S.

[rangerrebew]

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China Tests Both Taiwan and the U.S.
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By Seth Cropsey & Harry Halem
October 05, 2021
 

Since last Friday, 1 October, the Chinese Communist Party has escalated its incursions into Taiwanese airspace.  Initially, this coincided with China's "National Day" on 1 October, marking the PRC's founding.  However, PLA incursions continued after 1 October.  From 1-3 October, the People's Liberation Army executed five major incursions into Taiwanese airspace, each of which was conducted with a dozen or more aircraft, the largest of which included 25 aircraft.  Then, on 4 October, China conducted a 52-aircraft incursion into Taiwanese airspace, the largest operation of its kind that the PLA has ever conducted.  The location of these incursions, and the strike packages dispatched, indicate that the CCP's actions are more than mere saber-rattling or domestic grandstanding.  Rather, these actions are a calculated attempt to test Taiwanese defenses, identify weak points, and gather tactical and operational intelligence for a future attack on the island republic.

PLA incursions into Taiwanese airspace should come as no surprise to observers of international events.  In 2020, PLA aircraft violated Taiwanese airspace 380 times on 91 separate days.  Up to October 2020 alone, the PLA flew over 1,700 sorties into Taiwanese airspace, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of Defence.  These numbers alone indicate a concerted Chinese strategy of some sort.

This strategy becomes intelligible when three factors are considered.

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2021/10/05/china_tests_both_taiwan_and_the_us_797510.html

[Kamaji]

This may also be an attempt at acclimatizing the Taiwanese to the presence of Chinese aircraft in their airspace.  Eventually, the Taiwanese will start to get a bit blasé about the continued presence of Chinese aircraft, and that may slow their response time down enough that, when the actual invasion does come, China gains valuable minutes of time in Taiwan's airspace before a response comes; time enough to get close enough to knock out Taiwan's air defenses.