The PLA Eastern Theater Command ran 32 warplanes around Taiwan on Thursday in a sortie that was not designed to be believed as the main event. Iranian missiles struck Al Jaber Air Base in Kuwait and Isa Air Base in Bahrain the same week, pulling US Central Command assets forward and committing Patriot batteries to the Gulf at the same moment Beijing chose to raise its Taiwan encirclement tempo. Iran's salvo was not coordinated with Beijing. Beijing read what the salvo made available.

Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense confirmed the 32-aircraft figure Friday morning; the sortie included J-16 strike fighters, Y-8 electronic warfare platforms, and KJ-500 airborne early warning aircraft -- combined-arms, not a show flight. The inventory math is worse now. Admiral Samuel Paparo, INDOPACOM Commander since 2024, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in April that Pacific missile-defense assets were already strained by Korean Peninsula contingency planning; Iranian strikes on Al Jaber and Isa shift a third draw onto that same ledger. The G7 summit opens in Kananaskis on June 13, and if Beijing's encirclement cadence holds through that date, Paparo will be briefing allied defense ministers on a live PLA pressure campaign rather than a concluded exercise.