♦ Read the full story: Why the Chinese Military Has Increased Activity Near Taiwan

Over the past year, Hsu Geng-rui (許耿睿), an amateur wireless radio operator who runs the Facebook page “Southwest Airspace of Taiwan”, has often heard the following radio broadcast: “Attention PLA aircraft flying at 2,000 meters in airspace southwest of Taiwan: You have entered our ADIZ and are affecting our flight safety.”

Whenever a military aircraft of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) enters Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), Taiwan's standard response is to deploy its Air Force by scrambling its own military aircraft, usually fighter jets, as a deterrent.

Taiwan’s ADIZ, shaped like a rectangle without the southeastern corner, was established by the United States Armed Forces during the Cold War. Unlike territorial waters and national airspace that are protected under international law, “an ADIZ is more a political construct,” said Ou Si-fu (歐錫富), director of the Chinese Politics, Military, and Warfighting Concepts Division at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research.

But the tacit political norms that have existed for nearly half a century have been shattered over the past year.  ( Read more )