Source: Privy Council No. 10
The British frigate "Richmond" declared on the 27th that it would cross the Taiwan Strait from north to south and hype it up, becoming a "warrior" who "dared to challenge China" in the eyes of the Western media.
However, South Korea's "Chosun Ilbo" reported on the 29th that when the British frigate crossed the Taiwan Strait, I am afraid that there is a wolf that the outside world does not know.
Although US, Canadian, French and Australian warships have recently passed through the Taiwan Strait, British warships have passed through the Taiwan Strait for the first time since 2008. In 2019, a survey vessel owned by the British Navy also passed through the Taiwan Strait, but the vessel was not a warship.
The "Richmond" made a high-profile hype as it passed through the Taiwan Strait
For this kind of behavior of the British frigate, Shi Yi, spokesman for the Eastern Theater of the People's Liberation Army, responded on the 27th that the British side's move was a brush "sense of existence", which fully exposed its speculative mentality, "the Eastern Theater organized naval and air forces to follow the supervision and vigilance throughout the whole process."
Although the PLA did not disclose the detailed tracking and surveillance situation, the South Korean media noted that on the same day that the British warship passed through the Taiwan Strait, a notice issued by Taiwan's "Ministry of National Defense" showed that "the PLA sent at least 6 military planes and other aircraft to pursue and warn near the Taiwan Strait." According to reports, on the 27th, a total of 1 Y-8 long-range dry aircraft, 1 Y-9 communication countermeasure aircraft, 2 J-16 fighters, 1 Air Police-500 early warning aircraft and 1 Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft entered the airspace of southwest Taiwan.
A map of the trajectory of PLA military aircraft released by Taiwan's "Ministry of National Defense."
Judging from their flight trajectories, except for the two J-16 fighters who continued to go to the Bashi Strait, the rest of the PLA military planes hovered in the Taiwan Strait, "as if blocking the southwest entrance of the Taiwan Strait."
The old driver believes that if the PLA dispatches military aircraft to monitor the frigate "Richmond", such an arrangement is very reasonable. As an old frigate designed in the 1980s and commissioned in 1993, although it replaced the old Seawolf point air defense missile with a new "Sea Recipient" air defense missile in a modification just completed in 2020, it still does not have regional air defense capabilities, and its overall combat capability is seriously behind the times.
Tian Shichen, retired admiral, president of the Economics And Taxi Think Tank, and center for the development of international military operations, believes that except for the territorial waters of the Taiwan Strait, all foreign warships enjoy freedom of navigation in international waterways, and as long as international law and relevant domestic laws are observed. But the British ships deliberately exaggerated their passage through the Taiwan Strait, which was clearly provocative. Therefore, the focus of the "Richmond" sailing through the Taiwan Strait is "public speculation."
PLA Air Police-500 early warning aircraft
It can be seen from this that the "Richmond" operation across the Taiwan Strait can only be regarded as a political move at best, and it has no ability to pose a threat to the PLA air warfare organization. The PLA uses the long-range detection capability of the Air Police-500 early warning aircraft to closely monitor the sea and air situation around the Taiwan Strait, while anti-submarine aircraft and electronic warfare aircraft are responsible for ensuring that British warships will not take advantage of the opportunity to create any "demon moths.".
Therefore, the "Richmond" was touted in the mouths of the Western media as a "brave" act of "challenging China", but the truth was actually that under the three-dimensional surveillance of the people's liberation army," it passed through the Taiwan Strait with trepidation and honesty. The British crew was terrified along the way, and who should they go to to tell?