In a rare report on mainland Chinese drone activity, Taiwan said two People’s Liberation Army (PLA) unmanned aerial vehicles circled the island for hours on Saturday, just a day after Japan and the Philippines carried out joint drills in nearby waters.
The unmanned aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and patrolled around the self-ruled island from around noon to 9pm, according to the Taiwanese defence ministry.
The course of the drones was as close as 43 nautical miles (about 80km) to Cape Eluanbi, Taiwan’s southernmost point.
Other PLA drones as well as a number of fighter jets also operated in the southwest of the island from around 8am to 11pm. The operation involved a total of 18 aircraft, but the ministry did not specify how many of each type took part.
In total, 36 aircraft and 12 vessels from the PLA were detected in the 24 hours from 6am on Saturday, with 31 of the aircraft crossing the median line and entering Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern, southeastern and eastern air-defence identification zone, the ministry said.
It was the most intense day of PLA activity around Taiwan in three weeks, and came a day after the Philippines and Japan carried out their first joint exercise in the West Philippine Sea – Manila’s name for parts of the contested South China Sea that are closest to the Philippine coast.
The PLA has carried out almost daily patrols in the Taiwan Strait since 2020.
Collin Koh, a senior fellow at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said he did not recall any previous public reports of more than one drone circling the entire island of Taiwan.
“But clearly if this is the first time [mainland] China is doing this, it means an intensification of its ISR missions targeted at Taiwan,” he said, referring to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance activities.
According to Song Zhongping, a military commentator and former PLA instructor, the two drones were possibly on a reconnaissance mission “targeted” at the Japan-Philippines exercise.
The two long-time US allies have recently boosted security ties in the face of what they say is growing pressure from China.
Song said the drones could be used to collect “electronic spectrum signals and information of weapons and equipment” used nearby.
“[Generally] unmanned aircraft are used for strategic and tactical reconnaissance … to provide manned aircraft with a deeper understanding of more realistic intelligence,” he said.
While PLA drone missions around the entire island were rarely reported, Song said such missions had been “regularised”.
“Drones are not particularly hard to detect, it’s just a matter of reporting or not.”
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Similar moves near Taiwan by PLA drones were reported for the first time in April last year, when a long-endurance strike-and-reconnaissance drone – which can carry heavy weapons – circled the island, and another long-range reconnaissance drone made a half-loop.
But drones have been used regularly in PLA patrols in the Taiwan Strait.
Beijing claims the strait and the airspace as its own as it considers Taiwan part of China, to be reunited by force if necessary.
Most countries do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but its main international backer the United States is opposed to any attempt to take the island by force and is committed to arming it.
Koh said the key objective of the drone patrols wasn’t “just pure surveillance but to test Taiwan’s defences”.
They were likely to have been aimed at “evaluating [Taiwan’s] responsiveness and ability to cope with multiple threats from different directions”, he said, adding that this would aid the PLA in planning for ISR and combat operations.
