Taiwan security bureau says Chinese warplane activity halved this year but coast guard 'grey-zone' patrols have expanded

Chinese military aircraft carried out more than 1,450 sorties around Taiwan between January and September 2026, compared with more than 3,000 in the same period of 2025, Taiwan’s National Security Bureau said in a written report prepared for the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign and National Defense Committee, which is due to question security officials on Thursday 22 October. The United Daily News reported the figures on Wednesday and Singapore’s Lianhe Zaobao carried them later that day.

The bureau said China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) held 28 “joint combat readiness patrols” with warships in those nine months, against 31 a year earlier. It said the PLA continued to use other drills to test the responses of Taiwan’s forces and sent air and naval units near Taiwan during this year’s Han Kuang 42 exercise to gather intelligence.

The bureau said China had increased what it calls “grey-zone” activity at sea. It said that since June Beijing had extended coast guard “law enforcement patrols” into waters east of Taiwan and the western Pacific, citing maritime boundary talks between Japan and the Philippines, and that Chinese survey ships were carrying out underwater work just outside Taiwan’s contiguous zone.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said it detected 29 Chinese military aircraft, six navy ships and nine official vessels around Taiwan in the 24 hours to 6am local time (10pm GMT Tuesday). It said 23 of the aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and that it had monitored them with aircraft, ships and coastal missile systems.

Background: Beijing regards self-governed Taiwan as part of China and has not ruled out using force to take control of it. Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s claim. The Taiwan Strait median line is an unofficial boundary that Beijing does not recognise. Earlier this week Taiwan’s coast guard said it had driven away Chinese vessels near the Pratas Islands; see our report.