On Monday, October 4, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense that 56 Chinese jets had flown into the southwest portion of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ).
That doubled the previous single-day record, which occurred on June 15, when China in the vicinity of Taiwan. That record itself was then repeatedly broken over several days – and the message underscored with threatening rhetoric.
“China will take all measures necessary to crush any ‘Taiwan independence’,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Twitter.
The continued flights followed a Group of Seven industrialized nations “the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues” between China and Taiwan, which the communist mainland views as a breakaway province.
The tensions sparked a flurry of comments from U.S. politicians and media, with many claiming China had violated Taiwan’s airspace. Among them was Robert Menendez, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“Incursions on Taiwan airspace are only the latest example of China's increasingly aggressive behavior,” Menendez tweeted.
“With global stability & security at stake, it's more crucial than ever that the US defend democratic values & free-market principles championed by Taiwan's people & government.”
Beijing’s intentions aside, however, it’s technically false to say China made incursions into Taiwan’s airspace.
That’s because Taiwan’s self-declared air defense identification zone (ADIZ) is not synonymous with its national airspace. In fact, they are quite different in both legal and geographical dimensions.
the Convention on International Civil Aviation, which spells out the rules for international air travel, “every state has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its territory.”
The convention notes that the territory of a state includes its territorial waters, which extend 12 nautical miles from the baseline (the low-water line along the coast) of a state. Sovereignty also extends to a country’s internal waters, which face landward from the baseline.
An ADIZ is distinct from national airspace.
The U.S.-based think tank Globalsecurity.org defines an ADIZ as a “unilaterally established set of procedures followed by one country's air defense forces” that are not underpinned by an international treaty or law.
For example, states may demand that aircraft entering their ADIZ identify flight plans and nationality, keep their transponders on, and respond to radio identification requests.
However, other states aren’t required to comply with these demands if they “are prepared to have their aircraft intercepted,” Globalsecurity.org wrote.
Approximately 20 states have established ADIZs, including China, Japan, South Korea and the United States.
A little-understood fact about Taiwan’s ADIZ is that it overlaps geographically with China, both its territorial waters and actual land.
Moreover, China’s own ADIZ, declared in 2013, covers territories claimed by South Korea and Japan. For example, China’s ADIZ covers the Senkaku Islands, disputed by China and Japan.
Due to the unilateral nature of ADIZs, portions of the buffer zones , Japan and South Korea overlap, specifically in the East China Sea.
It was against this backdrop that China .
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) mouthpiece the Global Times on October 4 that the People’s Liberation Army had “for the third time in just four days … broke its record in the number of aircraft dispatched for drills near the island of Taiwan in a single day.”
Citing Taiwan defense authorities, the Global Times reported that “[a]t least 149 PLA warplanes have joined exercises near the island of Taiwan since the start of the National Day” on October 1, the day that commemorates establishment of the People’s Republic of China.
Those military aircraft included 34 J-16 fighter jets, two Russian-manufactured Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets, two Y-8 anti-submarine warfare aircraft, two KJ-500 early warning aircraft and 12 H-6 nuclear-capable bombers.
But while the Chinese aircraft flew between Taiwan and Taiwan-controlled Pratas Island, they never came within 100 miles of Taiwan.
Many media outlets, , , , and tweeted that the Chinese planes had entered Taiwanese airspace.
Besides Menendez, other U.S. politicians, including Republican House member William Gregory Steube and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, also a Republican, repeated the incorrect claim.
In response to China’s actions, Taiwan’s foreign minister said his country is , appealing to Western partners, specifically Australia, for aid.