Chinese Breaches of Taiwan’s Airspace in the Regional Context

Taiwanese Defense Ministry has been reporting on breaches of Taiwan’s Air Defence Identification Zone over the last several months as tensions have been increasing over recent years between China and Taiwan, following their unresolved historical issues. For China as well as the rest of the world, the ‘Taiwan issue’ is likely the most consequential ongoing regional conflict. The US has repeatedly taken a stance in support of Taiwan against any Chinese aggressive action, reaffirming their long-standing alliance and close ties.

Reports issued after each intrusion by the Ministry of National Defense of the Republic of China (Taiwan) show the paths of the aircraft involved in the crossing of international sea borders between China and Taiwan. They also feature illustrations of the paths followed. Chinese aircraft typically enter the airspace of Taiwan’s waters south-west of the island itself and continue on their path for several tens of kilometres before abruptly turning around and returning to China’s airspace along a similar path.

The first recorded breach of Taiwan’s airspace was reported on Twitter to have happened on September 16th last year. Since then, occurring almost daily, at least 91 such intrusions have been detected, the most recent one on the day of writing, January 25th. While most of these involved a single aircraft or a fleet of two, on January 23rd and 24th, thirteen and fifteen Chinese aircraft were reported to have entered Taiwan’s airspace. Some of the first intrusions in mid-September involved a larger number of aircraft, too. Notably, September 18th and 19th have been the only days when Chinese aircraft also crossed the Middle Line directly between China and Taiwan, not only on the south-west of the island. Unlike the others, these two intrusions also involved two H-6 bombers. Eight such bombers have also been involved in the breach last Saturday, January 23rd.

The airspace being breached is the combination of the Exclusive Economic Zone and the Air Defence Identification Zone. The former is defined by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and represents the sea area over which states have special rights, such as to natural resources or fisheries. It extends 200 nautical miles (roughly 370 km) into the open sea or typically cuts across the middle of a narrower body of water or a strait.

Taiwan Strait is roughly 180 km wide, with a 130 km gap at the narrowest point. The Exclusive Economic zone claimed by China covers Taiwan and its sea claims, as it has maintained since the mid-20th century Chinese Civil War that Taiwan is part of China proper. These claims are naturally disputed by Taiwan’s government, which, in turn, claims to be the rightful representative of the entirety of mainland China and Mongolia along the island of Taiwan as well as parts of the territories of other countries such as Russia or India.

For all practical purposes, a line cutting through the middle of the Taiwan Strait is more widely accepted as the international boundary between the two Exclusive Economic Zones, in the absence of a formal agreement between China and Taiwan. This line was established in 1954 upon the signing of the Mutual Defense Treaty between Taiwan and the US.

The other zone - Air Defence Identification Zone - is not defined in any international treaty and is not subject to international law. Instead, states themselves determine where their own zone lies. As their existence does not imply any physical breach or claim to any rights, overlaps in these zones do not necessarily represent any conflicts or tensions. 

In the case of Taiwan, the de facto Air Defence Identification Zone has been set along the Middle Line. While formally the zone defined by Taiwan extends even beyond the entirety of the Taiwan Strait and into mainland China, just entering this area is not seen as a violation. Instead, Taiwanese authorities report intrusions only when the Middle Line is crossed. Taiwan’s Air Defence Identification Zone has also been defined with the assistance of the US Army after the Second World War.

The stalemate and a decades-long standoff between China and Taiwan since the Second World War lies at the heart of sino-Western relations. Over recent years and decades, many other regional issues involving China have gained international relations. However, the impact of each of those on wider geopolitics is much more limited. 

For example, the persecution of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang has been widely reported on lately. Although even potential crimes against humanity are alleged, this is happening on almost universally internationally-recognized Chinese territory, which makes any cross-border action much more difficult. 

Likewise, conflicts between China and Tibet are limited in their involvement of Western powers. Although many public personalities from around the world across many decades have expressed sympathies for the Tibetan independence movement, which claims to build its legitimacy upon a long history of Tibetan autonomy, Tibet is also now recognized by almost states and international actors as an integral part of China.

Perhaps the only issue which comes closer is the issue of Hong Kong’s political and legal autonomy, which has been strongly challenged by China in recent years. Although Hong Kong is recognized to be a part of China as well, there are important historical caveats. Until 1997, Hong Kong was a colony of the UK, before being transferred to China. Amid the transfer negotiation, Hong Kong’s Basic Law was established, guaranteeing a certain level of autonomy and non-interference by mainland China for the following 50 years - an agreement known as one country, two systems. If recent Chinese challenges to this promise are interpreted as breaches of China’s international obligations, Western powers might be in a better position to express their sympathies with Hong Kong or even become more involved in the controversy.

The case of Taiwan is special in this context for being the only part of Chinese territorial claims which has not been accepted as such by many major world players. Instead, a status quo of two de facto countries claiming the entirety of each other’s territory but existing side-by-side has been in place for a better part of the past century. 

As mentioned above, the US guaranteed Taiwan’s security (primarily against China) from 1954 until 1980 under the Mutual Defense Treaty. Since then, the Six Assurances along with the Taiwan Relations Act have superseded it. The latter does not guarantee military aid, but instead maintains “strategic ambiguity”. More specifically, it says that: "the United States will make available to Taiwan such defense articles and defense services in such quantity as may be necessary to enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defense capabilities". Although this change was made to make possible closer relations between the US and China after the end of Mao Zedong, Taiwan continued to be the much closer ally of the US and the West out of the two. 

Due to this history of international relations, Chinese violations against Taiwan are often taken as signs of provocation against the US as well. On January 23rd, US Department of State spokesman Ned Price has put out a statement calling on Beijing to cease its ongoing pressure against Taiwan and adopt a productive, peaceful approach instead. The release reiterates previous statements and treaties the US is involved in in the region. It maintains that the US’ “commitment to Taiwan is rock-solid and contributes to the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and within the region.”