Chinese Helicopter Off Taiwan Coast

Taiwan's Southeast Coastal Area Visited by Z9 ASW

19 March 2023

Chinese Helicopter Off Taiwan Coast

Taiwan’s Southeast Coastal Area Visited by Z9 ASW

By Wendell Minnick (Whiskey Mike) 顏文德

TAIPEI - Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) has reported an odd visit by a Chinese helicopter off the southeast coast of Taiwan.

The ship-borne Z9EC Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Helicopter raises more questions about China’s plans for a potential naval blockade.

Though numerous Y-8 ASW fixed-wing aircraft have visited this area, the Z9 made a rare appearance over the weekend.

The Y-8 is a popular commercial and military platform in China. See the 130-page China Market Outlook for Civil Aircraft, 2014-2033 (2016); for those interested in the 2014 projection of civil aircraft procurement before Covid devastated the airline industry.

See Press Release and Map below.

At the bottom of this post is a FREE PDF of my book Chinese Submarines and Underwater Systems for paid subscribers ($5/month or $50/annual).

The assumption is that at some future date China will impose an air and sea blockade of the island to choke-off oil/gas/coal and food imports to force Taiwan to surrender. This could start slowly by choking off the South China Sea where China has occupied and expanded islets and corral reefs to build artificial islands for air bases, radar facilities, air defense and anti-ship missile batteries, signal intelligence facilities, etc.

Taiwan’s chattering political elites, namely the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), have been busy shutting down their nuclear power plants to save the Polar Bear. In my humble opinion they can go to the South Pole to eat penguins.

Abandoning energy security to rely on vulnerable wind farms that are unable to produce anything compared to the monster amps of a nuclear power plant could come to haunt the DPP as China recently announced the creation of a death list of Taiwan “separatists”.

The Z9 appeared briefly in an area that serves as a transit route for Taiwan’s remaining two diesel submarines between the ports of Kaohsiung and Suao.

There is also the very real possibility that the Z9 trespass might also be a test to see if a Chinese submarine was detectable, thus an exercise for future plans of a blockade. It is possible that China is not concerned about Taiwan’s two remaining attack submarines.

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