The Chinese air force is building up the world's second-largest force of stealth fighters. Perhaps more importantly, the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) is also developing doctrine for using its new, far-flying Chengdu J-20s in wartime. For decades China's plan for invading Taiwan (officially the Republic of China) was simple: send lots of ships laden with soldiers across the 100-mile-wide Taiwan Strait. Today, however, China's breakneck military modernisation has enabled planners to conceive of much more elaborate - and for China, less risky - invasion concepts. It's increasingly apparent that the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and Air Force (PLAAF) intend to encircle Taiwan from the north, the south or both directions-and then attack the island country from the east. An easterly assault could work in conjunction with a more-direct, westerly assault across the strait. The PLA's west-to-east axis could divide and distract - and exploit gaps in - Taiwanese defences, while the east-to-west cross-strait axis would deliver the bulk of the people, vehicles and supplies that an invading force would need to secure a lodgement and advance towards Taiwan's major cities. "Manoeuvre in a war like one between the People's Republic of China and Taiwan would mean selecting unusual directions of attack so as to increase the moment of surprise," said one independent military aviation expert, of the encirclement exercise. But a sea- and airborne envelopment would be complex and risky, as it would require Chinese forces to travel long distances and fight through Taiwanese and allied forces in precisely the areas where those forces can leverage their greatest advantages in intelligence, surveillance and fire-control.
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