China has gone 'crazy for drones,' employing them to maintain pressure on Taiwan's isolated military outposts.
* In recent weeks, Chinese drones have begun flying over and near Taiwanese land.
* The drone flights are viewed as part of China's campaign to put pressure on and frighten Taiwanese military.
* Flights continue, and Taiwan has shot down one drone, heightening fears of an escalation.
In recent weeks, China's drones have been a consistent element of its military activities surrounding Taiwan, displaying new capabilities and increasing pressure on the self-governing island that Beijing claims as part of its sovereignty.
Drone flights over Taiwan's outlying islands, frequently by small civilian models, are among China's most obvious pressure methods, and experts and authorities are concerned that such operations risk pushing rising tensions into open conflict.
Following House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan on August 3, China started a series of military drills surrounding the island. Live-fire drills over and around the island were part of the exercises, as were repeated flights by Chinese aircraft beyond the median line, an unofficial but long-acknowledged barrier in the Taiwan Strait.
After Pelosi left, Taiwanese military fired flares at two Chinese drones above Kinmen County, a series of Taiwanese islets a few miles off the coast of the Chinese city of Xiamen.
According to Maj. Gen. Chang Jung-shun of the Taiwanese army's Kinmen Defense Command, it was the first time he could recall Kinmen units taking such action.
Taiwan's army stated on August 5 that troops in Kinmen observed four drones and shot flares to scare them away. Over the same time, identical aircraft were sighted around Taiwan's Matsu archipelago, which is off China's coast to the north of Kinmen.
On August 7, Taiwan's Defense Ministry announced that its personnel were on alert and deployed to monitor Chinese aircraft, ships, and drones "simulating strikes on the island of Taiwan."
China declared the end of military operations surrounding Taiwan on August 10, but it has maintained a high level of naval and air activity around the island. (On August 9, Taiwan conducted its own drills, which it described as defensive.)
China's "high-intensity" actions in early August, "including the employment of drones to trespass [over] Taiwan's offshore islands," were "irrational and provocative," Taiwanese Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Min-Han Hsieh said Wednesday.
"In reaction, Taiwan's military promptly increased alertness and combat readiness, sticking to the ideals of preparing for war without seeking it," Hsieh, an official in the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Operations and Planning, added.
Drone flights over Taiwanese territory continued throughout the month, attracting international attention as well as more aggressive responses from Taiwan.