Taiwan's National Security Bureau is highlighting a huge increase in Chinese military operations, reporting an 80% increase in military aircraft flying around the country from 2023 to 2024.
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00:00Taiwan's intelligence chief says China is stepping up its military pressure on Taiwan
00:05by changing the way it conducts routine military drills.
00:08Tsai Min-yen made the comments at the legislature after China wrapped up two days of drills
00:31earlier this month, dubbed Straight Thunder 2025A.
00:35The exercises simulated a partial blockade of Taiwan and marked the fourth large-scale
00:40military drill by China in under a year.
00:43The findings are part of a new National Security Bureau report that looks at intelligence seen
00:49as crucial to Taiwan's defense.
00:52Defense reporter Haime Okan now joins us live for more on the National Security Report.
00:58Haime, what issues are being raised?
01:00Right, so this document, which is about 10 pages, highlights important trends regarding
01:08Taiwan's security for the first half of the year.
01:11Topics like Chinese espionage in Taiwan, which is getting worse, as well as how countries
01:15like the United States and Japan are working together to deter China.
01:18But a big chunk of this report talks about Chinese military activity in the region.
01:23The head of the National Security Bureau is highlighting a huge increase in military operations in the region.
01:28Now, they're pointing to an 80% increase in Chinese military aircraft operating in the region from 2023 to 2024.
01:37You can take a look at the numbers to see how big of a spike in activity that is when Taiwan first started reporting Chinese ADAZ incursions.
01:44That stands for Air Defense Identification Zone.
01:46So these numbers are all Chinese military aircraft that are flying around Taiwan but not breaching airspace.
01:52We can see that the total number for 2020 was 390.
01:57But now, in just four months, we've tripled that number and have surpassed more than 1,000 aircraft in 2025.
02:05Now, Taiwan is also concerned about the 40 or so Chinese combat patrols that Beijing conducted last year,
02:11with the Security Bureau adding that this is basically China's way of normalizing the military's presence and putting pressure on Taiwan.
02:18Now, for more on this, earlier I spoke to Ben Lewis.
02:21He's the co-founder of PLA Tracker, an organization that monitors Chinese military activity in the region.
02:26And I started with asking him about how the PLA, how China's military, has evolved its operations in the region.
02:34Essentially, at face value, it boils down to when we first started getting information from MND on this,
02:39it was basically the PLA conducting a presence exercise.
02:42So they would send aircraft into the southwest area of the ADIZ, often, you know, anti-submarine warfare or, you know, a couple fighter jets here and there.
02:51As time went on, the number of aircraft in the southwest area increased.
02:56Then August 2022 comes.
02:58They erase the median line.
02:59Then they're crossing the median line every day.
03:01By July 2023, they're operating on all sides of the island.
03:05Joint Sword 2024 A and B, again, all sides, straight Thunder 2025 on all sides of the island.
03:10And essentially what we've seen is the PLA gradually expand its presence on a daily basis to surround Taiwan
03:17and then integrate new capabilities, kind of more far-reaching training exercises at a smaller level and a larger level,
03:25essentially to, you know, not only train their forces, to train Taiwan's forces,
03:28but really to kind of get used to operating in an actual operational environment that is the Taiwan theater.
03:33The National Security Bureau also is drawing attention to these smaller joint combat readiness patrols from China.
03:41How big of an issue is this and what can Taiwan do to combat this?
03:44This is happening every day.
03:46And, you know, small to medium-sized exercises are happening two or three times a month.
03:50That's very problematic.
03:52And I don't think it's getting enough attention.
03:54I think the best way to kind of increase the awareness of that is to give people more information to say,
03:59hey, look, here are the details. Here's what's really going on.
04:02And the more large-scale exercises they do, and I think it's very likely we'll see another straight Thunder this year,
04:07the better at that they're going to become.
04:09I think Taiwan demonstrating its ability to keep pace in terms of monitoring these activities,
04:14making sure that the PLA, you know, isn't violating Taiwan's territorial integrity during these operations is crucial.
04:20I think the best way to do that, and I'm going to sound like a broken record,
04:23is to share more information about what the PLA is doing.
04:25Now this morning, Taiwan's Defense Ministry reported that 25 Chinese military aircraft
04:31operating in the region in the span of a 24-hour period.
04:34So it just goes to show you that Beijing really wants to put this pressure on Taiwan
04:38so it gets harder to tell what exactly China's intentions are.