From Yimou Lee
TAIPEI (Reuters) – A Chinese aircraft carrier sailed through sensitive Taiwan roads on Friday, the Taiwan Defense Ministry said, just hours before Chinese and US presidents were due to speak.
China claims democratically governing Taiwan as its own territory, and has intensified its military activity close to the island in the past two years to assert its sovereignty claims, alarming Taipei and Washington.
A source with direct knowledge of the matter, who was not authorized to speak to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the carrier Shandong sailed near the Taiwan-controlled island of Kinmen, which was directly vis-à-vis opposite the Chinese city of Xiamen. .
“Around 10:30 a.m., CV-17 appeared about 30 nautical miles southwest of Kinmen, and was photographed by a passenger on a civilian flight,” the source said, referring to Shandong’s official service number.
USS Ralph Johnson, an Arleigh Burke guided missile destroyer, estimated the carrier at least in part on its route. Shandong had no aircraft on his deck and sailed north through the road, the source said.
Taiwan has also sent warships to keep an eye on the situation, the source said.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry, in a brief statement, confirmed Shandong’s passage but gave no details other than to say that its forces have a “full understanding” of what Chinese ships and aircraft are doing on Taiwan roads.
The U.S. Navy spokesman Lt. Mark Langford said Ralph Johnson “made a routine Taiwan Strait transit on March 17 (local time) through international waters in accordance with international law”. He did not work out.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian referred questions to the Defense Ministry – which did not respond to a request for comment – but said Shandong had a “routine training plan”.
“We should not associate this with the communication between the heads of state of China and the United States. You may think it is too sensitive. What is sensitive is you, not the Taiwan Strait,” Zhao told reporters in Beijing.
‘PROVOCATIVE’ TIMING
The sailing happened about 12 hours before US President Joe Biden spoke with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
The source described the timing of the Shandong movement so close to the call as “provocative” and that it was unusual for it to be sailed during daylight hours, with previous missions occurring at night.
Last April, the Chinese Navy said a carrier group led by Liaoning, the country’s first aircraft carrier, which was put into active service, was conducting routine exercises in the waters off Taiwan.
Taiwan is already in an intensified state of emergency due to the Ukraine war, cautious that China is taking advantage of the situation to make its own movement, although there were no signs that Beijing is going to build up any military strike.
Lo Chih-cheng, a senior lawmaker from Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, called Shandong’s transit a “very provocative message” when countries in the region were already alerted to the war in Ukraine hours before Biden-Xi Uruff.
“Tensions over Taiwan’s roads will therefore not rise sharply, but it will likely cause neighboring countries to raise their military alert levels,” he told Reuters.
China says Taiwan is the most sensitive and important issue in its relations with the United States. Washington has no formal diplomatic relations with Taipei, but Taiwan is the main international backer and arms supplier.
Taiwan rejects China’s sovereignty claims and has repeatedly promised to defend its freedom and democracy.
Kuo Yu-jen, a security expert at Taiwan’s National Sun Yat-sen University, said Shandong might be heading to northern China for next month’s celebrations marking the founding of the China Navy.
“It carried no aircraft and did not carry frigates,” he added.
Shandong is China’s newest aircraft carrier launched in 2019.
In December 2019, shortly before the presidential and parliamentary elections in Taiwan, it sailed through the streets of Taiwan, a movement that was condemned by Taiwan as an attempt at intimidation.
Taiwan’s air force also scrambles planes almost daily to see Chinese warplanes flying into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, mostly in the southwestern part of the road at the top end of the South China Sea.
(Report by Yimou Lee; Additional Reporting by Ben Blanchard, and Martin Pollard in Beijing, Edited by Gerry Doyle and Angus MacSwan)
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