On Saturday, 10 Chinese military aircrafts entered Taiwan's air defence identification zone (ADIZ). These included 8 Shenyang J-16 fighter aircraft, 1 Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, and 1 Y-8 Shaanxi. As a result, Taiwan also issued radio warnings, and deployed aircraft and missile defences to monitor the Chinese aircraft.

On Wednesday, two Chinese planes attempted to enter Taiwan's air defence identification zone followed by a similar manoeuvre by 11 Chinese planes on Friday.

Even though China and Taiwan have maintained separate governments for almost seven decades, China continues to assert sovereignty over Taiwan, a democratic nation with nearly 24 million residents. Taiwan, which has resisted Chinese aggression as well, is strengthening its strategic relationship with democratic countries, notably the United States.

GD Bakshi, a retired major general, called China's recent invasion of Taiwan's territory a "brazen attempt" to intimidate Taiwan, claiming that the Chinese government is preparing for a real invasion. In addition, he added, China's repeated provocations could also be an attempt to desensitise the Taiwan forces to Chinese invasions so they become accustomed to China's repeated invasions and thus unalert.

His comments came against the backdrop of recent Chinese attempts to breach Taiwan's air defence identification zone (ADIZ) when their aircraft entered the southwest sector on Saturday.

"It is only a matter of seconds when the Chinese aircraft are over Taiwan as they come to the edge of the air defence identification zone further testing the defence forces. They are just trying to degrade the defence capabilities by such repetitive provocations", he added. 

Further, retired Gen Major GD Bakshi said that a recent survey of Taiwanese people revealed that a majority of them believed that a war with China was inevitable because China was simply "playing" to build up military pressure. Further, he noted that the mismatched military capabilities of China and Taiwan could precipitate a major clash between the two countries if repeated provocations are made.

"In case, China decides to go into a clash, the Taiwan government can only try to seek time by multiple attempts so that they can seek the intervention of the US government followed by the entry of other countries including Japan, Australia, and other European unions. Whether it is just practice of repeated military pressure or pre-war practice is just a matter of time", he said. 

Image source: Reuters