On January 23, China sent 39 PLA Air Force aircraft to violate Taiwan's Air Defence Identification Zone
(ADIZ). The incursion involved 34 J-16 and J-10 fighter jets, one H-6 bomber, and four aircraft with
electronic warfare capabilities. The PLA's J-16D electronic warfare aircraft was spotted for the first time
near Taiwan. Chinese warplanes started making forays into Taiwan's ADIZ since September 2020. Taiwan's
Defence Ministry said there were about 380 sorties in 2020, and the number more than doubled to 961 sorties
in 2021. While this is the largest breach in 2022, the largest show of force by China was on October 4, 2021,
when 56 military aircraft breached the island’s ADIZ. So far this month, there have been only five days when
Taiwan's Defence Ministry didn’t report any incidence of China’s incursion.
(Comment: China's violation of the ADIZ coincided with the 6-day long US-Japan Naval Exercises in waters
south of the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa. 10 U.S. military vessels—including aircraft carriers the USS Carl Vinson and the USS Abraham Lincoln, a destroyer, and an amphibious assault ship—took part in the
joint exercise with Japan’s Maritime Self Defence Force.)
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