After the Japanese Defense Ministry spotted an armed reconnaissance drone of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) flying above waters to the east side of the island of Taiwan on Monday, Taiwan media reported that the PLA aircraft went and made a full circle flight around the island of Taiwan for the first time. 

Chinese mainland analysts said on Wednesday that Taiwan’s defense authority’s failure to report the drone’s activity exposed the island’s defense vulnerabilities against drones, a great vulnerability the PLA can abuse in a possible cross-Straits conflict.

A TB-001 drone of the PLA flew to the eastern side of the island of Taiwan, crossed the Bashi Channel and continued to fly along the alleged median line of the Taiwan Straits, marking that the drone made a clockwise circle around the island on Monday, the first day of Taiwan’s annual Han Kuang military drills, media on the island reported on Tuesday.

This is also the first time a PLA drone has made a full circle flight around the island of Taiwan, the report said.

The report came after Japan's Ministry of Defense Joint Staff said in a press release that a TB-001 armed reconnaissance drone of the PLA flew across the Miyako Strait and to the eastern side of the island of Taiwan on Monday.

According to a flight path provided by the Japanese release, the TB-001 went further south and headed toward the Bashi Channel without returning, which is consistent with the report made by Taiwan media.

However, Taiwan’s defense authority only reported that a Y-8 reconnaissance plane and a J-11 fighter jet of the PLA entered Taiwan's self-proclaimed southwest air defense identification zone on Monday, which means the it had failed to detect the TB-001 drone, or it intentionally did not report it, observers said.

By making a full circle around Taiwan, the TB-001 drone displayed its outstanding range, possibly carried out reconnaissance on Taiwan’s Han Kuang drills, and sent a warning to “Taiwan independence” secessionist and foreign interference forces, which comes amid US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's planned Taiwan trip, a Beijing-based military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Taiwan armed forces’ failure to report the PLA drone activity exposed that there are huge loopholes in their air defense systems. This showed that the PLA can potentially send drones to Taiwan without facing major threats in a possible cross-Straits conflict. These drones are of lower cost and do not have pilots, giving an advantage, the expert said. 

The drone only conducted reconnaissance in Monday’s mission, but if a real conflict were to break out, countless drones can carry out all sorts of missions including reconnaissance, attack, target indication, damage evaluation, electronic warfare and communications relay, the expert said.

It again showed the great military strength gap between the Chinese mainland and the island of Taiwan, and that the PLA has overwhelming advantages that can safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, analysts said.