Decoding PLA moves around Taiwan: 3 categories, 3 levels of signalling?
Taiwan by the People's Liberation Army have become a routine affair, but their tempo and intensity have steadily increased in recent years.
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What were occasional sorties before 2020 have evolved into a well-coordinated campaign designed not only for combat training but also for strategic signalling.
But not all PLA operations around Taiwan are the same. They fall into three main categories: near-daily aerial patrols, combat-readiness patrols, and large-scale joint forces exercises – each varying in scale, intensity and purpose.
So what kind of signals do each of these send?
Near-daily patrols
PLA Air Force sorties around Taiwan have been carried out on an almost daily basis since 2021, with a sharp increase in numbers observed since 2024, after Taiwanese leader
William Lai Ching-te assumed office.
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According to PLATracker, an open-source database based on Taiwanese defence ministry reports, fewer than 20 PLA aircraft entered Taiwan's air defence identification zone (ADIZ) in 2019.
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