A Chinese aircraft carrier group yesterday sailed through the Taiwan Strait, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said, a day after China held a live-fire exercise near Taiwan.
“The Liaoning is passing through the Taiwan Strait now, sailing north along the west of the median line and we are closely monitoring it,” Koo told reporters at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
The Liaoning also took part in China’s large-scale military drills around Taiwan on Monday last week.
Photo: AFP
Taiwan said at the time that the Liaoning operated off the nation’s southeast coast during those drills, launching aircraft off its deck.
It appeared to be returning to Qingdao port in eastern China via the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Island, 東沙島), in the northern part of the South China Sea, for “replenishing and necessary maintenance,” said Jiang Hsin-biao (江炘杓), a retired navy captain at the Taipei-based Institute for National Defense and Security Research think tank.
Its involvement in the recent military drills was for “the purpose of practising against foreign forces and intimidating Taiwan,” Jiang said.
In Beijing, China said that it was “perfectly normal” for its aircraft carriers to sail near Taiwan.
“Taiwan is Chinese territory. It is perfectly normal for Chinese aircraft carriers to sail in its own territory and territorial waters,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lin Jian (林劍) told a regular briefing.
China has two aircraft carriers in service, and a third undergoing sea trials. The Liaoning has previously passed through the Strait.
Japan last month said the same carrier had entered Japan’s contiguous waters for the first time.
China has sailed its carriers through the strategic strait before, including in December shortly before Taiwan held elections.
China says it alone has jurisdiction over the nearly 180km-wide waterway that is a major passageway for international trade. Taiwan and the US dispute that, saying the Taiwan Strait is an international waterway.
The US Navy regularly sails through the Strait to assert freedom of navigation rights. Other allied states, such as Canada, Germany and Britain, have also carried out similar missions, to the anger of Beijing.
In related news, Japan and the US yesterday commenced 10 days of joint military drills involving tens of thousands of personnel.
The joint military drills “Keen Sword” would involve 45,000 Japanese and US troops, 40 vessels and 370 aircraft, as well as some forces from Australia and Canada, the Japanese Joint Staff said.
The exercises, which take place every two years, are being held across Japan, including at Japanese and US military bases, through Friday next week.
“We have a strong sense of urgency that we can’t rule out the possibility of a serious situation resembling Ukraine happening in regions near our country,” General Yoshihide Yoshida, the top uniformed officer in Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, said on Tuesday.
“We are determined to prevent and deter such a situation,” he told a news conference, adding that the US-Japan alliance was integral to regional stability.
“Keen Sword will ensure we maintain our advantage over those who seek to undermine the rule-based international order,” Admiral Steve Koehler, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, told reporters on Tuesday.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and