A helicopter from the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong takes off over the waters of the Pacific Ocean south of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, in this April 15, 2023 photo. JAPANESE MINISTRY OF DEFENSE / Portal
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said three Chinese ships, including the aircraft carrier Shandong, crossed the Taiwan Strait on May 27. “A flotilla of the PLA [Armée populaire de libération] “One of three ships, led by the aircraft carrier Shandong, passed through the Taiwan Strait around noon today,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ships were heading “north west of the centerline,” he said, referring to that invisible border unilaterally drawn by the United States during the Cold War that Beijing refuses to recognize. Taiwan’s defense ministry added that eight Chinese warplanes have crossed the strait’s centerline in the past 24 hours, an operation that has been ongoing since August.
The Taiwanese Army has “reacted appropriately”
Taiwanese armed forces “monitored the situation and loaded planes [de patrouille aérienne civile], naval vessels and land-based missile systems to respond to these activities,” the island’s ministry said. Before confirming that the army has now “reacted appropriately”. According to the Defense Ministry, “at 6 a.m. on Saturday, 33 fighter jets and 10 ships were spotted.” The day before, eleven ships were near Taiwanese waters.
China’s Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment, and the country’s armed forces did not mention the trip on their official social media.
According to Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute at the University of London, the aircraft carrier Shandong’s passage through the Taiwan Strait is “very unusual”. “But the Chinese have been trying to demonstrate their military might around Taiwan for the past six months or the past year,” he told Agence France-Presse. Therefore, the appearance of Shandong in the strait is part of that “general context,” according to Mr. Tsang.
The last time Taiwanese officials reported the Chinese aircraft carrier’s presence in the Taiwan Strait was in March 2022. It was stationed there ahead of a phone call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden.
China regards Taiwan as a province that has failed to reunite with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Relations between Beijing and Taipei have more than deteriorated since Xi Jinping took power a decade ago, and the situation has continued to deteriorate in recent years, with China stepping up military incursions around the island.