Before the Qingming holiday, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake had occurred in the eastern part of the island, and such a large earthquake also caused damage to many buildings and transportation facilities in the eastern part of the island. In the past few days, the aftershocks in the eastern part of Taiwan Island in Hualien have been one after another, and on April 5, there were 4 aftershocks in the eastern part of Taiwan Island, and many information disclosed by Taipei shows that the earthquake has caused more than 10 people to be killed and 1123 people injured, and at the same time, Taiwan Island has also found that many people have lost contact in the continuous progress of the search and rescue work, and most of these lost people live in the Hualien Mountains of Taiwan Island, and now Taiwan Island is refusing the mainland to provide post-earthquake support for the Taiwan Island earthquake.
During the Ching Ming Festival, Ma Ying-jeou once again went to the mainland to pay homage to his ancestors, which was not Ma Ying-jeou's first trip to worship his ancestors, and it was widely analyzed that Ma Ying-jeou's ancestor worship itinerary had clearly sent a relatively peaceful signal. With the compulsion on Taiwan Island and Ma Ying-jeou's visit to the mainland, the People's Liberation Army also gave the Taiwan military a rare holiday. According to a piece of information from Taiwan's defense department quoted by Taiwan media, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) rarely suspended its air force patrol of Taiwan Island for 24 hours from 6 a.m. on April 4 to 6 a.m. on April 5. Since 2019, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has sent several warplanes to the airspace around Taiwan almost every day to conduct regular combat patrols. Although Taiwan has changed its method of reporting in recent years, it can still be seen that a large number of Jian-16 heavy fighters and Y-8 series electronic reconnaissance planes have continuously crossed the strait to approach Taiwan Island to carry out operations. The PLA's combat patrols were almost non-stop all day, and during the 24-hour period from April 4 to April 5, the PLA rarely suspended its patrols for one day.
Although the Ching Ming Festival is a legal holiday on the mainland, it will not cause the PLA to suspend its patrol flights to Taiwan, after all, the PLA also carries out normal patrols during the Spring Festival. However, although the PLA's air power has not been dispatched, the PLA has already sent surface ships to carry out the operation. Taiwan's defense department has detected at least eight PLA warships operating in the eastern part of Taiwan Island, and judging from a satellite image published by foreign media, a PLA 054A missile frigate has arrived in Taitung, and not far from this 054A missile frigate, there is also a Taiwan military frigate that is carrying out the task of tracking PLA warships.
In the past, PLA warships mainly carried out operations in the Taiwan Strait, but now the PLA military aircraft has changed their tactics and began to go to the waters east of Taiwan Island more frequently, which actually shows that the PLA has the capability of long-range military operations in the far seas, of course, the 054A missile frigate has also had many close encounters with the Taiwan military in recent years, and the Taiwan warship does not dare to make any substantive interception of the 054A missile frigate. The Taiwan military clearly knows that any warship on the island is inferior to the PLA warships in terms of the level of modernization of weapons and equipment and comprehensive performance.
The War Research Institute believes that the PLA's suspension of a one-day patrol operation in Taiwan is very likely just to save face on the island, because after all, the strong earthquake on the island has already damaged the F-16 fighters of the Taiwan military units. If the PLA continues to carry out a fairly high-intensity war patrol flight over Taiwan now, then there will be some feeling as if taking advantage of the danger of others, and judging from the strength of the PLA, it will be able to complete a unified action against Taiwan at any time. Text/Iris