Taiwan shadows Chinese patrol near island as tensions rise

Taiwan scrambled ships and fighter jets to shadow a second Chinese joint combat readiness patrol near the island in a week, after its defence ministry detected 21 Chinese aircraft, including J-16 fighters and drones, operating with warships around Taiwan on Monday. The response reflected more than routine tracking: each patrol forces Taipei to keep air, naval and radar assets on alert, consuming time, fuel and readiness while China pushes the line between pressure and provocation.

The latest movement followed a similar patrol last Tuesday, when the People’s Liberation Army sent 22 aircraft, including J-10 and J-16 fighters and KJ-500 airborne early warning aircraft, beginning at 8:36 a.m. local time. Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said it released surveillance images after that operation in a rare move, including an F-16 tailing two Chinese fighters escorting a Y-20 aerial refuelling aircraft, along with the warship Yinchuan. The images were meant to show the scale and proximity of the challenge, not just the count of aircraft.

By 6 a.m. Tuesday, Taiwan News reported that the ministry had tracked 29 Chinese military aircraft, seven naval vessels and one official ship around Taiwan over the previous 24 hours, with 24 aircraft crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait and operating in multiple sectors of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone. Defense analyst Su Tzu-yun said Chinese warships equipped with cruise missiles had been deployed as close as 24 nautical miles from Taiwan’s shores during these patrols, a distance that underscores how tightly the island’s forces are being tested.

Taiwan National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu called the patrol “unprovoked” and said China was the sole source of instability in the Indo-Pacific. The broader pattern fits Beijing’s long-running campaign of military pressure against democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims as its territory and has not ruled out taking by force. Taiwan rejects that claim and says only its people can decide the island’s future.

The timing has also sharpened concern in Taipei after the second anniversary of President Lai Ching-te’s taking office on May 20, 2026. Reuters reported that Lai said he would tell Donald Trump that China was undermining peace and that Taiwan’s future cannot be determined by outsiders. Taken together, the patrols suggest not just another incursion but a possible new baseline, one in which Chinese air and sea activity near Taiwan is becoming more frequent, more visible and more costly to absorb.