China’s newest aircraft carrier, the Shandong, crossed the Bashi Channel with its fleet and continued southward, the Japanese Ministry of Defense’s Joint Staff Office said yesterday.
From April 7 to Monday, 620 fighter jets and helicopters were launched from the carrier, 10 more than the office had reported on Monday.
However, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said that it had not detected any military jets in Taiwan’s eastern or southeastern air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 6am on Monday to 6am yesterday, adding that the additional jets must have operated outside Taiwan’s ADIZ.
Photo courtesy of the Japanese Ministry of Defense’s Joint Staff Office
As it usually does when Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft or ships operate in Taiwan’s vicinity, the MND launched air and naval patrols while using radar detection systems, it said.
Based on information from its joint intelligence and surveillance system, the MND on Monday said the fleet was spotted in the Western Pacific and was likely to continue sailing southeast of Taiwan.
The Shandong was part of military exercises launched by the PLA around Taiwan on April 8, one day after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) returned from a 10-day overseas trip that included a meeting with US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.
The Shandong is being escorted by six ships: two Type 052D guided-missile destroyers, a Type 055 stealth guided-missile destroyer, two Type 054A guided-missile frigates and a Type 901 fast combat support ship.
Local reports said that Taiwan’s military on Monday mobilized forces on the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島), in the nation’s south, as a precaution after Shenyang J-15 fighters were spotted entering the southeastern corner of Taiwan’s ADIZ.
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