Will treat Chinese drone incursions as ‘first strike,’ says Taiwan defence chief

New Delhi: Taiwan Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng on Thursday said that the island nation will treat  Chinese drone or jet incursions into its airspace as a “first strike”, amid rising concerns over Beijing’s strategy of flying unmanned surveillance craft around the island.

The ministry “does not wish for war to break out in the Taiwan Strait, which will be very tragic,” Bloomberg quoted Kuo-cheng as saying in response to questions from lawmakers on Thursday.

The comments appeared to be a reiteration of Taiwan’s prior statements against planes breaking the 12-nautical-mile (22-kilometer) boundary that Taiwan considers to be the definition of its territorial waters and airspace. Despite sending more and more aircraft into the island’s much wider air defence identification zone, China has avoided the smaller area that Chiu was referring to, reported Bloomberg.

Beijing exerting pressure on Taiwan

Beijing, which sees the autonomous island as a part of its territory, has been exerting growing pressure on Taiwan.

This pressure includes almost daily warplane intrusions across the median line, an unofficial border dividing the two sides in the middle of the busy waterway, and across the Taiwan Strait.

Twice within a one-week period, China has sent autonomous aircraft around much of the island, though they have not strayed into the 12-mile limit Chiu said would represent an attack.

China’s ‘new normal’

However, lawmakers voiced worries about the “new normal” of China probing Taiwan’s defences, whether through drone flights or crossings of the median line.

Over 1,700 more military flights were made around the island by the People’s Liberation Army last year compared to the previous year.

Chiu also said that Taiwan’s biggest annual live-fire drill simulating Chinese attacks, the Han Kuang Exercise, will incorporate scenarios of eastern Taiwan being attacked. That comes after China’s Shandong aircraft carrier battle group conducted training in the waters east of Taiwan.

Separately, Taiwan authorities said in a report published Thursday that the island will receive its first batch of 66 F-16V jets from the US later than planned, in the third quarter of 2024 rather than the end of this year.

The US is also expected to deliver four MQ-9 drones that Taiwan ordered in 2025, another Taiwanese defense ministry official told lawmakers.

With inputs from agencies

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