The first confirmed deployment of a PLA drone within Taiwan’s claimed airspace is the latest example of Beijing’s “salami-slicing” strategy towards the self-ruled island, analysts say.
One observer noted it was also meant to test, wear down and put pressure on Taiwan’s military.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said on Saturday that a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) surveillance drone had entered its self-defined airspace – meaning the space above the 12-nautical-mile (22km) territorial sea baseline claimed by Taiwan – above Pratas Island that day.
Pratas Island, known as Dongsha Island in Chinese, lies around 450km (280 miles) southwest of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan and 260km from Shantou in Guangdong province on the mainland.
Pratas is the largest natural island in the northern South China Sea. It sits west of the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines, which links the South China Sea to the Pacific Ocean, making it a critical maritime choke point.
The PLA Southern Theatre Command confirmed on Saturday that it had arranged the military drone to conduct routine training near Pratas Island, describing the operation as fully legitimate and lawful.
It was the first time the PLA had confirmed a military drone operating over Taiwan’s claimed airspace. The island’s defence ministry reported a PLA drone operating in the Pratas airspace in 2021, but Beijing did not give confirmation.
“These actions amount to a de facto declaration of Beijing’s claimed jurisdiction over the waters surrounding Taiwan,” said Lu Li-Shih, a former instructor at the Taiwanese Naval Academy.
Lu noted that, like the PLA’s Justice Mission 2025 exercises late last month, the recent deployment aimed to assert control near Taiwan. Several of the designated exercise zones in last month’s drills crossed into Taiwan’s claimed territorial waters within 12 nautical miles of its sea baseline.
Lu said the operations were a continuation of Beijing’s salami-slicing strategy – taking small, incremental actions to achieve a larger goal – towards Taiwan since 2022, when then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the island. These moves have included PLA aircraft frequently crossing the median line, an unofficial midway point between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, along with the erosion of the concept of the median line.
Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-governed island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.
Responding to the move on Wednesday, Peng Qingen, spokesman for Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office, acknowledged the drone flight and reiterated Beijing’s stance on Taiwan. He accused the island’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities of being “troublemakers” who “stubbornly adhere to a Taiwan independence stance and continuously engage in provocative moves”.
According to Peng, mainland China’s coastguard conducted law-enforcement patrols in waters near Pratas Island, which were reported by Taiwanese media. The spokesman described the coastguard activities as legitimate, warning that “should [Taiwanese authorities] dare to cause trouble in the relevant waters, they must bear all the consequences”.
Lu suggested that incidents similar to Saturday’s drone deployment were likely to take place elsewhere, such as eastern Taiwan, as part of Beijing’s broader efforts to assert control.
Analysts noted the vulnerabilities in Taiwan’s defences on Pratas, where no military forces are stationed apart from coastguard personnel, limiting Taiwan’s ability to respond effectively to PLA drone operations.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said in the Saturday statement that the drone operated at an altitude beyond the range of Pratas Island’s defence systems, prompting warnings over international radio channels. It also described the PLA’s move as “highly provocative and irresponsible”.
Chang Yen-ting, a former deputy commander of Taiwan’s air force, warned that Taipei had inadvertently revealed a highly sensitive secret by acknowledging that its own airspace lacked firepower.
“Air defence capabilities are top secret, but now that this has been disclosed, the mainland knows it. In the future, the likelihood of individual cases becoming standard procedures will be significantly higher,” he said on Taiwan’s CTi News on Wednesday.
Lu said the PLA was wearing down Taiwan’s military, but its use of drones made it less dangerous than if it had used crewed military aircraft.
He noted that Taiwan had to scramble crewed fighters to respond as it lacked comparable unmanned aerial systems.
Lu said the waters near Pratas Island were strategically important for submarine operations, as the underwater terrain provided favourable conditions for US or Taiwanese operations aimed at tracking PLA submarines sailing from Hainan Island to the Pacific.
Su Tzu-yun, a research fellow at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defence and Security Research, said the PLA was employing “edge-ball tactics” by entering the airspace of the Pratas Islands, rather than flying directly over Taiwanese military camps stationed in the area, to test Taipei’s rules of engagement and strategic bottom lines.
He also said the Pratas Islands were only lightly equipped for air defence, and urged Taiwan’s armed forces to consider upgrading air defence systems on outlying islands, according to a report by the Taipei Times. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
