«Данное сообщение (материал) создано и (или) распространено иностранным средством массовой информации, выполняющим функции иностранного агента, и (или) российским юридическим лицом, выполняющим функции иностранного агента»
A Republic of China Air Force F-16BM jet fighter, equipped with an ACTIS pod on its left wing and an AIM-9X missile on the opposite side, prepares to land at Chiayi Air Force Base in June 2021. (Shutterstock / ChenHao_Kuo)
Topic: Air Warfare Blog Brand: The Buzz Region: Asia Tags: Aircraft, China, F-16 Fighting Falcon, Fighter Jets, J-16, Military Exercises, People’s Liberation Army Air Force, Taiwan, and Taiwan Strait Did a Chinese Fighter Jet Try to Start a War with Taiwan in December? February 11, 2026 By: Peter Suciu
Share
Chinese pilots performed risky and extremely hostile maneuvers against their Taiwanese counterparts during PLA military exercises in December, according to media reports.
The government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has long maintained that Taiwan is a breakaway province that will eventually be returned to mainland control—by force if necessary. With this in mind, the People’s Liberation Army’s military buildup in recent years has been seen as a two-headed political and military tool—a preparation for an eventual conflict, but also an attempt to intimidate Taipei into submitting to Beijing without a fight.
The Republic of China (RoC), the government of Taiwan, has other plans. It continues to build up its defenses, even as it knows that it faces a potential David versus Goliath fight.
Fortunately, cooler heads have prevailed, and there has been no direct armed conflict so far. However, there have been four major Taiwan Strait crises since 1954, with the most recent still ongoing. The current crisis began in August 2022 after then-US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, prompting Beijing to conduct continuous PLA military exercises around the island.
The December Taiwan Crisis the World Didn’t Hear About
The greater danger is that a simple mishap or misunderstanding could be enough to ignite a full-blown war. Such an incident almost occurred in December, according to a new report from the Financial Times.
During a series of air exercises in December 2025, a People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) J-16 fighter jet reportedly fired flares at a RoC Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon during the PLA’s “Justice Mission” exercises. The J-16 fired decoy flares towards the Fighting Falcon, which had been scrambled after the Chinese aircraft moved to cross the Taiwan Strait median line. The PLAAF J-16 then flew between the F-16s, which were seen as in the “firing position.”
The J-16 is an upgraded version of China’s earlier J-11 fighter, which Beijing copied from Russia’s Soviet-era Sukhoi Su-27 (NATO reporting name “Flanker”).
The paper of record, citing an official briefed on the incidents, emphasized that the “risky and provocative” acts were the latest in a series of aggressive actions undertaken by Beijing in recent months. The December incident came only weeks after a PLA fighter jet locked its weapons onto a Japanese military aircraft, a provocative move that was condemned at the time by Washington and Tokyo.
FT also reported on a third incident in late 2025, involving another Chinese J-16, which allegedly flew just underneath a PLAAF Xi’an H-6K (Hong 6) bomber, a license-built version of the Soviet Tupolev Tu-16 (NATO reporting name “Badger”). The “piggybacking” maneuver was intended to conceal the fighter’s presence from Taiwan’s radar.
“When they were discovered, the Chinese pilot flipped his plane on its side and flashed the missiles under its belly,” an official familiar with the matter told the outlet.
China’s Reckless Actions Could Have Consequences
There is concern that Beijing may be encouraging its pilots to perform such dangerous maneuvers to demonstrate its readiness to engage Taiwan. It follows Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s purge of several senior officials within the PLA.
Xi has intensified his push for the unification of Taiwan and the mainland, describing it as the “most important” issue in US-China relations.
However, Xi may also understand that military action could lead to a wider war and is instead employing intimidation tactics. The danger is that such actions only serve to heighten the risk that a mistake occurs.
Such mistakes have taken place in the past. In a notorious incident in April 2001, a PLA J-8 fighter jet tried to intimidate a US Navy EP-3 signals intelligence plane in international airspace near China by flying feet behind it. However, the Chinese pilot mistakenly rammed the larger American aircraft, killing him and forcing the EP-3 to make an emergency landing on China’s Hainan Island. The American crew was briefly detained by the Chinese government before being released, and in spite of the pilots’ efforts to destroy sensitive information, China is thought to have gained a windfall of information on US signals intelligence procedures from the captured aircraft.
That incident took place in 2001, when US-China relations were relatively cordial. If a similar accident happened again between Taiwan and China in the present, when they are near their worst point in history, the consequences would be difficult to predict.
About the Author: Peter Suciu
Peter Suciu has contributed over 3,200 published pieces to more than four dozen magazines and websites over a 30-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a contributing writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. He is based in Michigan. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: Editor@nationalinterest.org.
The post Did a Chinese Fighter Jet Try to Start a War with Taiwan in December? appeared first on The National Interest.
Источник: nationalinterest.org