China’s Soviet-built aircraft carrier the Liaoning and other People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warships are to visit Hong Kong to mark the 20th anniversary of its handover from Britain to China next month, with the ships scheduled to navigate through the Taiwan Strait or through waters east of Taiwan, a Hong Kong-based newspaper said yesterday.
A Liaoning carrier group yesterday left Shandong Province’s Qingdao Port to conduct a “trans-regional exercise,” China’s Xinhua news agency said.
In addition to the Liaoning, the group is comprised of the guided-missile destroyers Jinan and Yinchuan and the guided-missile frigate Yantai, as well as other unnamed warships, Xinhua said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The aircraft carrier group’s naval aviation unit is to comprise of Shenyang J-15 fighters and rotary-wing aircraft, it said.
However, the Xinhua report did not mention any details regarding the exercise area or whether the carrier group plans to anchor in Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong-based Sing Tao Daily said the Liaoning is to visit Hong Kong next month to participate in the ceremony marking Hong Kong’s handover.
Hong Kong residents would be allowed to tour the ships and are being invited to do so to “appreciate China’s national defense capabilities,” it said.
The Liaoning is to arrive in Hong Kong immediately after Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) ends his three-day visit to the territory scheduled from Friday through Saturday, the report said.
If the Liaoning is to make a voyage to Hong Kong, it is a virtual certainty that it would sail in a carrier battle group comprised of the warships most suited to showing off China’s military capabilities to the world, Chinese naval expert Li Jie (李杰) was quoted as saying by the Global Times, a China-based newspaper with ties to the Chinese military.
The report said the Chinese Ministry of National Defense did not respond to its request for comment on the movements of the vessels.
The carrier group is likely to have about 10 warships in its formation and the Chinese military is likely to use it to fly the Chinese flag in the South China Sea, Lee told the paper.
In December last year, a naval formation consisting of China’s first and only aircraft carrier and five other vessels sailed through waters east of Taiwan and skirted Pingtung County’s Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) on its way to conduct naval exercises in the South China Sea.
In early January, the Liaoning-led flotilla sailed up the Taiwan Strait on its return from the exercises under monitoring by the Taiwanese military, which gave local media a stream of updates on the whereabouts of the Chinese ships.
The military is keeping a close eye on the Chinese military’s movements in the region and taking necessary precautions, Ministry of National Defense spokesman Major General Chen Chung-chi (陳中吉) said yesterday.
It is a certain that whenever an aircraft carrier is on maneuvers, it will be guarded by escorts and have aircraft on deck, a senior official said, adding that the Liaoning carrier group is a menace to Taiwan regardless of its course.
The military would monitor Chinese movements and be ready to make appropriate responses, the official said.
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
Weather conditions across Taiwan are expected to remain stable today, but cloudy to rainy skies are expected from tomorrow onward due to increasing moisture in the atmosphere, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). Daytime highs today are expected to hit 25-27°C in western Taiwan and 22-24°C in the eastern counties of Yilan, Hualien, and Taitung, data on the CWA website indicated. After sunset, temperatures could drop to 16-17°C in most parts of Taiwan. For tomorrow, precipitation is likely in northern Taiwan as a cloud system moves in from China. Daytime temperatures are expected to hover around 25°C, the CWA said. Starting Monday, areas
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
Taiwan has recorded its first fatal case of Coxsackie B5 enterovirus in 10 years after a one-year-old boy from southern Taiwan died from complications early last month, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. CDC spokesman Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞) told a news conference that the child initially developed a fever and respiratory symptoms before experiencing seizures and loss of consciousness. The boy was diagnosed with acute encephalitis and admitted to intensive care, but his condition deteriorated rapidly, and he passed away on the sixth day of illness, Lo said. This also marks Taiwan’s third enterovirus-related death this year and the first severe
RSS