A Ministry of National Defense official yesterday said that Chinese officials might send its sole aircraft carrier to cruise the Taiwan Strait during President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) nine-day overseas state visit to Central America, scheduled to begin on Saturday.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy carrier group — comprised of the ex-Soviet carrier Liaoning and its five escorts — is conducting maritime exercises in South China Sea, but it could engage in a show-of-force operation along the Taiwan Strait’s median line on its return voyage to China, an official said on condition of anonymity.
The Chinese aircraft carrier group sailed through waters east of Taiwan late last month, following several training missions conducted by the Chinese military that circled Taiwanese airspace over the past few months, causing regional tensions to flare.
Photo taken from the Chinese Ministry of National Defense
If the Liaoning were to cruise along the median line it would be the first time it had done so with aircraft onboard, the official said, adding that its current complement of aircraft include at least 10 Shenyang J-15 fighter aircraft and an unknown number of Z-10 attack helicopters.
“Any exercise the Chinese carrier conducts involving J-15 flight operations will put aircraft at close proximity with our air interception zone and pose a significant threat to Taiwanese air defenses,” the official said.
In addition to the Chinese carrier, the group is suited for military intimidation because three out of its five escort warships are equipped with active phased array radars, which are significantly more advanced than the radars of other Chinese navy ships, the official said.
Despite resembling a US navy carrier strike group, the Chinese carrier group does not possess the former’s combat power, as its carrier and aircraft are not rated for nighttime flight operations, which is disadvantageous for the overall effectiveness of the carrier group, the official said.
The military is closely monitoring the movement of the Chinese carrier group and if it approaches the Taiwan Strait, the armed forces are to begin patrolling appropriate sea and air zones with maritime patrol aircraft, fighters and warships, and put ground-based missile batteries on alert, the official said.
Later yesterday, the Ministry of National Defense issued a statement saying it would not comment on speculation about the time or route of the Liaoning’s return to China, adding that the military is monitoring the carrier and prepared to respond appropriately to Chinese actions.
The domestically designed Teng Yun 2 drone passed development milestones over the weekend, flying for more than 10 hours straight and circling Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), in the longest flight of an indigenous uncrewed combat aerial vehicle. Developed by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, the Teng Yun 2, or “Cloud Rider” (騰雲二型), recorded its longest flight yet over the weekend, after a three-hour test flight last month, followed by five and seven-hour stretches in the air. The Teng Yun 2 No. 1812 departed from Chiashan Air Base in Hualien County at 6:46pm on Saturday and flew on a
A slew of new measures are to take effect on Friday, including nationwide bring-your-own-cup discounts. The new rule requires chain beverage shops to offer discounts of at least NT$5 (US$0.17) to customers who bring their own cups, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said. The policy would apply to more than 50,000 chain retail locations, including beverage shops, convenience stores, fast-food restaurants and supermarkets. It aims to cut down on waste from single-use plastic cups, more than 2.2 billion of which were used in Taiwan in 2020, the agency said. For convenience, the EPA said it has asked retailers to display signs stating how
TIMING: 'The CHIPS Act funding is crucial for us. In other words, if the act’s passage is delayed for too long, we will certainly need to adjust,’ chairwoman Doris Hsu said GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓) plans to start construction on a US$5 billion wafer fabrication facility in Texas in November, after passage of the US$52 billion Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act. The fab would be the largest of its kind in the US and one of the largest in the world, with a monthly capacity of 1.2 million wafers, GlobalWafers said, adding that the investment would be the first new fab in the US in more than 20 years and critical to closing a semiconductor supply chain gap. The world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier said the project, which
COUNTERING CHINA: ‘When democracies demonstrate what we can do ... I have no doubt that we’ll win that competition every time,’ US President Joe Biden said US President Joe Biden rebooted his effort to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) after an earlier campaign faltered, enlisting the support of G7 leaders at their summit in Germany. The Build Back Better World initiative, named after Biden’s domestic spending and climate agenda, struggled to get off the ground because not enough G7 partners contributed financially when it was unveiled a year ago, people familiar with its lack of progress said. “When democracies demonstrate what we can do — all that we have to offer — I have no doubt that we’ll win that competition every time,” Biden said during
RSS