The U.S. military has apparently decided that it has stirred up more of a hornet’s nest than it wished with the flight, earlier this week, of a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft that passed through Taiwan air space. After a spokesman for Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) confirmed to the War Zone on Oct. 21 that the flight had passed over Taiwan, Air Force Lt. Col. Tony Wickman, the PACAF’s Director of Public Affairs, reached out to that publication on Oct. 22 to say that the original confirmation of the RC-135W flying over Northern Taiwan had been in error. “On Wednesday {Oct. 21], my staff responded to your query regarding an RC-135 flight and I must inform you that what we gave you was incorrect,” Wickman said in an email. “I would like to correct the record by stating we did not have any U.S. aircraft in that area on the date and time in question. I apologize for passing bad information to you as you attempted to provide accurate information to your readers.”
The War Zone also stated that Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense has also reportedly denied that the U.S. aircraft flew over the island. Taiwanese media reports have said that the RC-135W did enter the island’s Air Defense Identification Zone, but an ADIZ is not the same as sovereign airspace. Nonetheless, another RC-135 was tracked flying over Taiwan again yesterday, The War Zone said.
Global Times Editor in Chief Hu Xijin said that the U.S. retraction and Taipei’s denials show “that both the U.S. and the island of Taiwan realize the seriousness of such a flight. Whether or not the spy plane actually flew over the island, it should be kept in mind that U.S. military aircraft are not allowed to fly over Taiwan. This is the bottom line. If concrete evidence ever shows that a U.S. military aircraft flew over the island, I believe the People’s Liberation Army would respond firmly with operations such as sending fighter jets into airspace over the island to defend our country’s territorial sky. If that were to occur, the military structure in the Taiwan Straits would be reshaped — and that would be an important move toward reunification.” I don’t know about that, but clearly, things could escalate rapidly out of control were such a scenario to come to pass.
