A man watches a news programme about Chinese military drills surrounding Taiwan on a giant screen outside a shopping mall in Beijing on 14 October 2024. (Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images)
Beijing appears to have concluded its latest series of military exercises around Taiwan after just approximately 13 hours, strengthening suppositions that the operation was another Communist Party of China vagary rather than a scheduled exercise.
The latest activity report released by Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) on 15 October indicates there have been no further notable military activities beyond the median line demarcation since the previous day.
Taipei had on 14 October reported the presence of 153 military aircraft and 12 naval assets from China around various parts of the island and within Taiwan's air-defence identification zone (ADIZ).
Of these, 111 aircraft had crossed the median line into the western, southwestern, and eastern parts of the ADIZ, read a notice of People's Liberation Army (PLA) activities issued by the Taiwanese MND on 15 October.
According to MND data, this is highest number of PLA aircraft that flew into the ADIZ since the Taiwanese government began providing information on ADIZ incursions in 2021.
Along with these aerial operations, the PLA Navy (PLAN) and the China Coast Guard had also deployed various military assets, including the aircraft carrier Liaoning.
Some of the air incursions were potentially conducted by aircraft from Liaoning, which is operating in the Philippine Sea, according to information published by the Japan Ministry of Defense.
The Republic of China Air Force (RoCAF) scrambled Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter aircraft equipped with the Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod (ATP) to monitor the PLAN's Shenyang J-15 fighter aircraft, according to Taiwan's state-owned Youth Daily News.
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