China sailed its aircraft carrier the Shandong through waters southeast of Taiwan into the western Pacific Ocean for a long-range exercise yesterday, the Ministry of National Defense said in a news release.
The ministry said it keeps close tabs on Chinese military activity through joint intelligence and surveillance.
Early yesterday it tracked the Shandong as it passed through the waterway 60 nautical miles (111km) southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, and headed east into the western Pacific Ocean for a long-range training session in the area.
Photo: Reuters / Joint Staff Office of the Japanese Ministry of Defense
The Shandong, the second of China’s two aircraft carriers, was the first to be domestically built, after being commissioned in 2019.
The ministry said it also tracked a total of 13 military aircraft and drones, including J-16s, Su-30s and Shaanxi KJ-500s, flying near Taiwan’s airspace from 5:40am.
Eleven of the 13 crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered the southwestern part of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), it said.
From 6am on Sunday to 5am yesterday, 26 People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes and 13 warships were detected around Taiwan, the ministry said.
Of the 26 aircraft, 11 crossed the median line and entered the southwestern part of Taiwan’s ADIZ.
“The military is closely monitoring the situation and has tasked aircraft, navy vessels and land-based missile systems to respond,” the ministry said.
Chieh Chung (揭仲), an associate research fellow at the National Policy Foundation in Taipei, said that continued recent incursions by PLA aircraft were meant to pressure and provoke Taiwan, and were in response to the Taiwan Strait transit by a US destroyer and a Canadian frigate made on Saturday.
The US Navy had said that the transit “demonstrates the commitment of the United States and our allies and partners to a free and open Indo-Pacific” region.
In response, China on Saturday said its troops were “on constant high alert.”
The US and Western allies have increased freedom of navigation crossings of the Taiwan Strait and the disputed South China Sea to reinforce that both are international waterways, angering Beijing.
Additional reporting by AFP
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
A total of 41 US military personnel were stationed in Taiwan as of December last year, a US congressional report said on Friday last week ahead of Tuesday’s passage of an aid package that included US$8 billion for Taiwan. The Congressional Research Service in a report titled Taiwan Defense Issues for Congress said that according to the US Department of Defense’s Defense Manpower Data Center, 41 US military personnel were assigned for duty in Taiwan. Although the normalization of relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1979 included a vow to withdraw a military presence from Taiwan, “observers have indicated
The navy next month is expected to commission into service two more domestically built Tuo Chiang-class stealth missile corvettes, a source said yesterday. The Hsu Chiang (旭江, PGG-621) and the Wu Chiang (武江, PGG-623) would be officially commissioned in a ceremony early next month, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The corvettes, launched in February and June last year respectively, were delivered to the navy in February. They are the third and fourth Tuo Chiang-class stealth missile corvettes to be produced. The Tuo Chiang-class corvette is a domestically designed and manufactured class of fast and stealthy multipurpose corvette built for the