As the new year began, there were many analysts and commentators taking stock of the extent of the incursions on Taiwan by the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) in 2022. A tweet from Damien Symon (@detresfa_) on December 29th (shown below) provides a detailed overview of the 1727 PLAAF flight incursions into Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) during 2022. The peak occurred in August with over 400 violations in that month alone.
These PLAAF incursions are part of a larger campaign of grey warfare or Salami Slicing which is being carried out by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and is raising tensions across the region.
In this episode of Perspectives with Neilo, I spoke with Itamar Waksman (@ItamarWaksman), Journalist with Radio Taiwan International in Taipei to understand the impact of these incursions, as well as the joint naval drills between Russia and China's Navy in December. We discussed how the rising tensions are driving neighboring countries like Japan to react and how Taiwan is extending its Military Conscription program as a result.
DIVE DEEPER
- China's warplane incursions into Taiwan air defence zone doubled in 2022 - The Guardian, Jan 2nd, 2023
- Russia and China unite for live-fire naval exercises in water near Japan - CNN, Dec 19th, 2022
- Japan, UK sign 'hugely significant' defence deal - Aljazeera, Jan 12th, 2023
- Extended military service to include higher pay, longer boot camp: President - Focus Taiwan Dec 27th, 2022
- VIDEO: Military conscription extended to one year from 2024 - RTI, Dec 28th, 2022
- Thumbnail Images: Ministry of National Defense, Republic of China.