Manoeuvres around Taiwan by the People’s Liberation Army have become a routine affair, but their tempo and intensity have steadily increased in recent years.

What were occasional sorties before 2020 have evolved into a well-coordinated campaign designed not only for combat training but also for strategic signalling.

But not all PLA operations around Taiwan are the same. They fall into three main categories: near-daily aerial patrols, combat-readiness patrols, and large-scale joint forces exercises – each varying in scale, intensity and purpose.

So what kind of signals do each of these send?

Near-daily patrols

PLA Air Force sorties around Taiwan have been carried out on an almost daily basis since 2021, with a sharp increase in numbers observed since 2024, after Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te assumed office.

According to PLATracker, an open-source database based on Taiwanese defence ministry reports, fewer than 20 PLA aircraft entered Taiwan’s air defence identification zone (ADIZ) in 2019.