Mutual claims of superiority between warring parties are commonplace, however, how logical these claims are made will be a separate assessment. As recently, a short video circulated making a statement from a Chinese fighter pilot, where he claimed he had managed to fly deep into Taiwan's airspace without being detected.
The mount that the Chinese pilot brought was not arbitrary, namely the Chengdu J-20 "Mighty Dragon", which is a stealth fighter positioned as a rival to the F-22 Raptor.
Reporting from eurasiantimes.com (18/1/2023), the Chinese Air Force – People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) has stepped up its provocation to the Taiwan Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). On January 15, Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) stated that the Chinese Air Force had sent its warplanes at least seven times last week.
Of course, the activities of all Chinese fighter jets flying close to Taiwan are regularly monitored by Taipei. But it is not impossible, there is a fighter jet from the fifth generation that is capable of infiltrating Taiwan's airspace, without being detected and intercepted by Taiwanese fighter jets.
Captain Yang Juncheng of the Chinese Air Force's “Wang Hai” brigade recently told Chinese Central Television (CCTV), that he was flying over Taiwan, watching over the entire island from his cockpit. The pilot notified the channel that he was flying over the Bashi Channel, Miyako Strait and Tsushima Strait in the East China Sea.
Yang said, “I can see the entire coastline and mountains of Formosa Island. At that time, I felt proud.”
However, Taiwan's Ministry of Defense has not officially acknowledged the J-20's flight anywhere near its airspace. Taiwan's Ministry of Defense regularly publishes data on China's air and maritime provocations on its official Twitter account. This could mean that Taiwan's military is unable to intercept the J-20 or chooses to withhold the information.
Captain Yang further told CCTV, “I said to myself at that time, I will fly in the future! There is no such thing as the Taiwan Strait. This line or that line!”
The statement refers to the median line, an imaginary buffer that runs in the Taiwan Strait between Taiwan and China. While the line has helped keep the peace for a long time, it has become increasingly irrelevant as Beijing asserts sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan and has vowed to integrate it with the Chinese mainland.
In August 2022, China deployed its J-20 fighters for the first time in joint military exercises conducted around Taiwan, amid tensions that soared after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan.
At the time, fighter aircraft took off from airfields under the Eastern Theater Command and performed missions including joint blockade, sea attack, ground attack, air superiority, and direct fire from precision weapons.
So far, fighters such as the J-11, J-16, and Su-30 have entered Taiwan's ADIZ, but there has been no communication about the J-20 making flights over or around Taiwan. Then in November 2022, the J-20 was shown to the public at the Zhuhai AirShow, where two aircraft had been temporarily grounded and parked.
The J-20 has been heavily involved in patrol duties, especially after the J-20 switched to using domestically developed engines. The J-20 was initially powered by Russian-made 2x Saturn AL-31FN-series (145 kN) engines.
Then the Saturn AL-31FN-series engines began to be replaced by locally developed Shenyang-Liming WS10C turbofan engines starting at least September 2019. The Chinese-made engines are said to offer superior thrust compared to the Saturn.
The improved Shenyang-Liming WS10C was trialled and displayed on the J-20 that competed at the Zhuhai AirShow 2021 airshow last September. The manufacturer of the J-20, namely Chengdu Aircraft Industrial Group Co Ltd, has stated that it will increase the production capacity of the J-20, after there are no obstacles to the supply of engines.
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