Among the nearly 130 warplanes deployed by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) for the “Justice Mission 2025” military drills around Taiwan was its ace stealth fighter, the J-20 Mighty Dragon. Interestingly, China has signalled that the aircraft went undetected by Taiwanese air defence forces.
However, this was not the first time the PLAAF had claimed, albeit indirectly, that Taiwanese military forces, equipped with state-of-the-art missile defences such as Patriot and the homegrown Sky Bow, failed to detect China’s most advanced stealth aircraft.
The PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command published a video on the second day of the two-day war games, showing a J-20 flying close to an unidentified landscape, which purportedly resembles the area around the Pingtung airbase in southern Taiwan.
Lu Li-shih, a former lieutenant commander in the Taiwanese navy, shared a photo on Facebook comparing a screenshot of the PLA video and the Pingtung region.
“J-20 fighter jets in Pingtung!” he wrote, highlighting the resemblance between a landscape visible in a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) promotional video and the terrain in Pingtung County.
说一个坏消息😋
解放军东部战区的J-20在台湾海岸10公里外飞行
J20拍下宝岛的美景后，安全返航
而台当局却继续装鸵鸟😋 pic.twitter.com/W2HSocVOtq
— 沙漠之狐 埃尔温·隆美尔 (@3596675596com) December 31, 2025
The screenshot has, nevertheless, been widely shared on social media, particularly by pro-China accounts that amplify the claims.
For instance, an X account called ‘PLA Military Updates’ mocked Taiwan, saying, “PLAAF J-20s Flew 10km off the coast of Taiwan, and Taiwanese defences failed to detect it.” Meanwhile, another Chinese account on X wrote: “After the J-20 captured the beautiful scenery of the treasure island, it safely returned to base. Yet the Taiwan authorities continue to play ostrich.”
The EurAsian Times could not independently confirm whether the J-20 flew close to the Pintung region, and neither the Taiwanese Ministry of National Defence nor the Chinese Defence Ministry has directly confirmed the development at the time of writing this report.
However, Chinese military enthusiasts argue that the Taiwanese Ministry of National Defence (MND) released no alerts on J-20s near Pingtung, as is routine for other PLA sorties. This means they either did not detect the Mighty Dragon or PLAAF is bluffing.
Interestingly, Pintung is home to several notable military facilities, including: Pintung Air Base (the largest air base in Taiwan by area); Jiupeng base, which is Taiwan’s primary missile and rocket research, development, and testing facility; the Dahanshan radar station, which offers early warning; the Joint Operations Training Base Command; and the mechanized infantry brigade barracks.
It is pertinent to note that the Taiwanese military tracked several Chinese fighter jets, including the J-16, which is being praised as the most advanced Flanker in the world.
Meanwhile, an RoCAF (Taiwanese) F-16 Viper tracked a J-16 via the AN/AAQ-33 “Sniper Advanced Calibration Pod” and obscured and cropped key parameter information, demonstrating the ROCAF’s ability to monitor enemy movements, as reported in detail by the EurAsian Times late last month. The engagement was recorded in a video that was later published by Taiwan.
NEW IMAGES: A PLAAF J-16 is spotted via the targeting pod of a Taiwanese F-16. Source: @MoNDefense, location unknown. pic.twitter.com/aAhHFkwjjm
— Jaime Ocon 歐海美 (@JaimeOcon1) December 29, 2025
Responding to the video, experts noted that the tracking was significant because it proved that despite numerical disadvantage and lack of a fifth-generation stealth fighter jet, Taiwan had capabilities that could inflict considerable damage on the PLAAF.
J-20 Undetected Or Is It Mere Propaganda?
Analysts believe that the video released by the Chinese Eastern Theatre Command is part of a sustained Information Warfare by Beijing to dissuade Taiwan’s democratic government and its western backers.
However, the Chinese claims were dismissed by Taiwan-based experts and officials.
Wang Ting-yu, a Taiwanese lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), stated that the J-20 video was actually shot in Guangdong province in mainland China, which has scenery similar to that of the Pintung region.
The J-20 has seemingly been part of broader drills simulating blockade and encirclement, signalling readiness for rapid, multi-domain operations against Taiwan, since August 2022.
In response to the J-20 screenshot currently floating on the internet, former Taiwanese air force lieutenant general Chang Yen-ting stated on a local television program that Taiwan lacked the sophisticated radar capability required to identify the stealthy J-20s.
He stated that Taiwan lacks stealth warplane-detecting quantum radar technology, as noted by the SCMP report. “[We] only have phased array radar for aircraft detection, also known as Doppler radar, which is normally used to detect non-stealth aircraft but not stealth aircraft. So for the J-20, we cannot detect it,” he said.
The expert emphasised that the defence ministry “would have already announced it” if it had been able to identify PLA stealth warplanes. “How many sorties of J-20s [has the PLA] made? How close to Taiwan were they? We don’t know,” he lamented.
“These secrets of the J-20 fighter jet should be kept for future combat. Intentionally revealing its distinctive features during exercises to demonstrate any capability is completely unnecessary,” he said. “Furthermore, the US military is also present in Taiwan, and one of the key tasks of its deployment there is to get intelligence about the PLA’s latest equipment,” he added.
The J-20, going undetected by Taiwan’s most advanced fighter jets, including the F-16V, or by AD systems like Patriot, may give the PLAAF a distinct advantage in combat.
In a potential invasion attempt, the Chinese J-20 could detect and engage Taiwanese fighters before being detected, winning a first-strike advantage that is typically decisive in gaining air superiority. Armed with long-range PL-15 missiles, it can strike from beyond visual range (BVR) while remaining hidden from older radars, as well as close in on Taiwan’s air bases to launch SEAD (Suppression of Air Defence) missions.
It could eliminate vulnerable, crucial targets such as airborne early warning planes and air-to-air refuelling tankers, rendering the Republic of China Air Force (RoCAF) nearly defenseless.
The J-20 is equipped with highly sophisticated data processing and sensor fusion systems, allowing it to gather data from other friendly assets, such as fighters, drones, early-warning aircraft, satellites, and electronic warfare (EW) units.
While the latest PLAAF video has caused quite a stir, it must be remembered that this is not the first time China has signalled that the J-20 went undetected by Taiwan.
In January 2023, PLAAF Captain Yang Juncheng of the “Wang Hai” brigade claimed he flew over Taiwan, overseeing the entire island from his cockpit.
The pilot informed state broadcaster CCTV that he flew over the Bashi Channel, Miyako Strait, and Tsushima Strait in the East China Sea. “When I was flying the fighter plane Treasure Island of the motherland, I could see the entire coastline and mountains of Treasure Island. At that moment, I was proud and proud [sic],” he was quoted as saying.
In a separate development earlier this year, China said it flew the J-20 through the strategic and heavily monitored Tsushima Strait near Japan and South Korea, and the Bashi Channel, a crucial choke-point located between the Philippines and Taiwan.
It further stated that despite Beijing flying its stealth fighter jets through these heavily monitored channels, the incident was not reported by any armed forces active in the region.
Former PLA instructor Song Zhongping stated that the J-20 didn’t really need to get too close to the island because doing so would make it more likely that the US and Taiwanese forces would discover the stealth fighter.
“The PLA wouldn’t do so just for show, even though Taiwan’s anti-stealth capabilities are limited,” he stated, adding that the J-20 fighter jet wouldn’t go into high-risk areas unless it was truly necessary.
He stated the stealth aircraft must prevent adversaries from learning too much about its electromagnetic spectrum transmissions.
- Contact the author at sakshi.tiwari13 (at) outlook.com
- Follow EurAsian Times on Google News
