A Chinese carrier group exercising near Taiwan is part of what are to be regular drills, the Chinese navy said in a statement late on Monday, further escalating tensions between Taipei and Beijing.
The group, including the aircraft carrier Liaoning, was conducting “routine” drills in the waters around Taiwan, a move to “enhance its capability to safeguard national sovereignty, safety and development interests,” the statement said.
“Similar exercises will be conducted regularly,” it said, without elaborating.
Photo: Reuters
The statement came after the Ministry of National Defense earlier on Monday issued a statement regarding a rise in the number of incursions by Chinese jets into its air defense identification zone (ADIZ) over the past few months.
The ministry said it had a “full grasp” of the situation in the air and at sea surrounding Taiwan and that it was “appropriately handling” the matter.
Beijing uses such methods to express its opposition to developments involving Taiwan, especially those with sovereignty implications.
Last week, when US Ambassador to Palau John Hennessey-Niland visited Taiwan along with Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr, Beijing sent 10 planes into the nation’s ADIZ.
Tokyo has also voiced its concern over increased Chinese military activity, with Japanese Minister of Defense Nobuo Kishi yesterday telling NHK that Japan aims to closely monitor Chinese naval and air operations in the region.
The Japanese Ministry of Defense said on Sunday that the Liaoning, accompanied by five escort ships, had transited the Miyako Strait between Saturday and Sunday on their way to the Pacific.
Kishi said that he hoped that Taiwan and China could settle their differences in a peaceful manner.
A White House spokesperson last month said that Washington would continue to assist Taiwan with means to sufficiently defend itself.
In its most recent foreign affairs and national defense talks with Japan on March 16, the US affirmed the importance of stability and peace across the Taiwan Strait.
While pledging to continue the sale of upgraded warplanes, missiles and other defensive hardware to Taiwan, the US Navy yesterday said that its Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group had entered the South China Sea on Saturday to conduct routine operations.
It is the second time the strike group has entered the area this year as part of the US 7th Fleet’s 2021 area of operations deployment.
The 7th Fleet said that the strike group would “conduct fixed and rotary-wing flight operations, maritime strike exercises, anti-submarine operations, coordinated tactical training and more” during its deployment.
Additional reporting by AP and CNA
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
RSS