Taiwan reports 68 Chinese military aircraft and 10 navy vessels near the self-ruled island in a possible continuation of Shandong aircraft carrier-led training exercises.
On Wednesday morning, Taiwan’s defense ministry reported the presence of 28 Chinese air force planes within its air defense zone, characterizing it as part of Beijing’s ongoing pattern of regular harassment amid escalating tensions in the Taiwan Strait.
Beijing, asserting Taiwan as its integral territory and not excluding the possibility of using force to achieve reunification, has escalated both military and political pressures on the democratic island, aiming to bolster its sovereignty claim.
According to Taiwan’s defence ministry, starting at approximately 6 a.m. (2200 GMT Tuesday), Chinese military aircraft, including J-10 fighters, entered the southwestern section of the island’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ). The ministry further stated that some of these Chinese aircraft proceeded to cross the Bashi Channel for exercises alongside the Chinese aircraft carrier, the Shandong, in the Pacific Ocean.
On Thursday, Sixty-eight PLA aircraft and 10 PLAN vessels around Taiwan were detected” by about 6am (22:00 GMT on Wednesday), referring to China’s army and navy, the defence ministry released in a statement.
The statement mentioned that the vessel, one of two operational aircraft carriers in the Chinese fleet, was approximately 60 nautical miles (approximately equivalent to 111 kilometers) southeast of the southernmost point of the island and was moving in the direction of the Western Pacific.
Japan also observed Chinese ships en route to the region. Japan’s defense ministry announced that its Maritime Self-Defense Force had detected the Shandong along with five accompanying Chinese navy vessels, which included two frigates and two missile destroyers. They were located approximately 650 kilometers to the south (equivalent to 400 miles) of Japan’s southwestern Miyako Island on Wednesday morning.
Japan dispatched a destroyer to surveil the Chinese vessels and verified that fighter jets and helicopters on board the Shandong were engaged in landing exercises, as reported by the ministry.
In a separate development, a senior official with knowledge of regional security planning informed Reuters that over 20 Chinese warships, which included Type 055 destroyers, transited the Bashi Channel and Miyako Strait on Wednesday to enter the Pacific Ocean.
In recent months, the United States and its allies have heightened their “freedom of navigation” passages through both the Taiwan Strait and the contested South China Sea to emphasize their status as international waterways.
The Chinese naval maneuver, coupled with the training drills conducted by the carrier group, constituted a clear challenge to the recent military operations carried out by the United States and its regional allies, according to the senior official.
On Saturday, a U.S. Navy and a Canadian warship traversed the Taiwan Strait, the U.S. Navy announced, marking the second collaborative mission of this kind since June. This event coincided with the presence of the leaders of both nations at the G20 summit in India.
Additionally, the naval forces of these two countries conducted a series of exercises in the South China Sea during the same week, as reported by the U.S. Navy.
In April, Beijing conducted military drills to simulate the encirclement of Taiwan following a meeting between President Tsai Ing-wen and U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.
China has been intensifying its military activities around Taiwan in recent years, citing perceived “collusion” between pro-Taiwan independence factions and the United States as a rationale.
(Source: Al Jazeera | Yimou Lee |Ben Blanchard | Kantaro Komiya | Christopher Cushing | Christian Schmollinger | Michael Perry | Mark Heinrich | Reuters)
