Due to increased incursions into Taiwan’s ADIZ, a recent video posted by a pro-China Twitter account highlights the capability gap between China and Taiwan and the latter’s reluctance to challenge China aggressively.
The clip allegedly shows a verbal encounter between Taiwan’s ground control and a Chinese fighter pilot. According to the Twitter account, Taiwanese forces are constrained in what they can do as China has superior military capabilities. Leaked Pentagon documents reveal that China would likely achieve air dominance in any cross-strait conflict, unlike the Russian Aerospace Forces that have been unable to gain air superiority over Ukraine more than a year into the invasion.
The documents paint a grim picture of Taiwan’s ability to fight against China, stating that Taiwan is unlikely to prevent Chinese military air superiority in a conflict. Moreover, Taiwan’s officials question their air defense’s accuracy in detecting missile launches, and fewer than half of their aircraft are fully capable of performing their missions.
The documents reveal that China’s air force would have a considerably better chance than Russia in Ukraine to seize early control of the sky, which Taipei believes will be the basis of an attack.
Despite having advanced F-16 Viper aircraft from the United States, Taiwan’s air defenses might not be able to stop a Chinese PLA Air Force onslaught. The Pentagon documents believe that Taiwan’s present tactic of launching two air defense missiles per target would be strained under high-volume PLA fires from China’s short-range ballistic missile system, distributed over numerous moving launch platforms. Additionally, Taiwan’s air defense units lack a “common operating picture” or the capacity to know where all units are at any given time.