In this regard, John Skous, a senior fellow at the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said that drones are one of the most important parts of China’s information-based warfare concept. Such advanced technology increases the ability to conduct operations without being physically present in an area far from the border. It also has less infrastructural or political risk.
However, there is no information that China has carried out drone strikes anywhere so far. However, Beijing conducted military exercises around Taiwan around the visit of the then Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, to Taipei last September. In addition to warplanes, military drones are used in the exercise.
China considers Taiwan an integral part of its territory. Beijing has not ruled out using force if necessary to take control of the island. So it can be said that Chinese military drones will play an important role in any future conflict centered on Taiwan.
Chinese military analyst Fu Qianshao told the country’s Communist Party-owned tabloid Global Times in September last year that military drones would be one of the first weapons deployed in any conflict in the Taiwan Strait.
Western analysts also warn that China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could use a significant number of drones at the beginning of any conflict over Taiwan.
