Chinese Shandong carrier strike group ‘sails through Taiwan Strait’ after western Pacific drills
- Shandong and escort vessels spotted off northern Taiwan and ‘we have deployed appropriate forces to respond’, island’s defence ministry says
- Strait passage comes as Japanese and US forces take part in training exercises near Okinawa, but there is no evidence to link the two
It also marked the first time the Shandong carrier strike group crossed the strait after training in the western Pacific.
“We have deployed appropriate forces to respond,” the ministry said on Thursday, without giving details of the action taken or the number of escort vessels in the carrier group.
The Shandong is the Chinese military’s second and first domestically made aircraft carrier. It first travelled through the strait in 2019, a week after being commissioned. Its last sailing through the narrow strip of water – home to key shipping lanes – was in June.
The 70,000-tonne warship has sailed near Taiwan at least eight times since April, when it took part in major PLA drills targeting Taiwan. The exercises followed a meeting in California between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and then US House speaker Kevin McCarthy, marking the Shandong’s first manoeuvres in the western Pacific. Beijing, which sees Taiwan as a breakaway province awaiting reunification, regards its exchanges with the United States and other foreign governments as a challenge to its sovereignty.
