Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning and its escorts carried out maneuvers around Taiwan, the Chinese military said in a statement Monday.
“It was routine training organized under the annual plan of work to test the effectiveness of the troops’ training and strengthen their ability to safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, at least 10 People’s Liberation Army fighters, including four J-16 and four J-10 fighters, a Y-8 anti-submarine warplane and a KJ-500 early warning aircraft, have entered Taiwan’s self-proclaimed air defense identification zone. (ADIZ), according to the Taiwan Ministry of Defense.
The US Federal Aviation Administration defines an ADIZ as “a designated area of airspace over land or water in which a country requires the immediate and positive identification, location and air traffic control of aircraft in the interests of the national security of the country.”
Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan, a democracy of nearly 24 million people on the southeast coast of mainland China, even though the two parties have been separately ruled for more than seven decades.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed that Beijing will never allow the island to become formally independent and has refused to rule out the use of force, if necessary, to take the island back.
Tensions over Taiwan have intensified in recent months as Taipei has received US backing in the form of new military hardware, an agreement between the US and Taiwanese coast guards and strong statements of support from US President Joe Biden’s administration.
“We are committed to strengthening ties with Taiwan,” said Ned Price, a spokesman for the US State Department, last week.
China is using coercion and aggression to systematically erode autonomy in Hong Kong, undermine democracy in Taiwan, violate human rights in Xinjiang and Tibet, and assert maritime claims in the South China Sea that contradict it. international law, “said Blinken.
“We will push back if necessary when China uses coercion or aggression to get its way.”
A ‘warning’ from Beijing
China’s maneuvers demonstrated their military superiority over Taiwan on Monday, Shi Hong, executive editor of China’s Shipborne Weapons magazine, said in a Global Times report.
“The exercise showed that the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) is able to encircle the island of Taiwan, isolate its troops and leave them nowhere and have no chance of winning when the circumstances arise,” Shi said. .
The exercises also sent a message to both the US and Japan, Shi added. Since all US and Japanese military intervention would likely come from the east, China, by exercising its aircraft carriers there, has shown that it could cut off that aid, Shi said.
Western analysts said China did not show new capabilities during Monday’s exercises.
In fact, a Chinese aircraft carrier in the open Pacific could play one of the U.S. Navy’s strengths: its nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSN), said Thomas Shugart, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and former Captain of the United States. the US Navy.
“A Chinese airline operating east of Taiwan is not particularly valuable to be used that way, as it can be quite vulnerable to fly so far away – in SSN-ravaged deep water and outside of China’s integrated air defense / SAM. umbrella, ”said Shugart.
But the Chinese military has made a political statement, analysts said.
“It is intended to be a warning to Taiwanese and others who, according to Beijing, are undermining its interests, not least the Americans,” said Collin Koh, a researcher at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
Koh points out that a PLA Navy carrier group has operated east of Taiwan at least twice before.
Such Chinese activities are expected to continue. The PLA said in its statement that airline operations like the one would take place on a regular basis on Monday.
American airline operates in the South China Sea
While the Chinese airline was conducting exercises off the coast of Taiwan, a strike group from a US Navy aircraft carrier was conducting its own operations in the South China Sea.
“It is great to be back in the South China Sea to reassure our allies and partners that we remain committed to the freedom of the seas,” said Vice Admiral Doug Verissimo, Commander of Carrier Strike Group Nine in a statement. statement.
While in the South China Sea, the strike group will conduct fixed and rotary wing flight operations, maritime strike drills, anti-submarine operations, coordinated tactical training and more, the 7th Fleet statement said.
Beijing claims almost the entire 1.3 million square mile South China Sea as its sovereign territory and has built military fortifications on several islands in recent years.
It says the presence of foreign forces, such as the U.S. aircraft carrier attack group, is fueling tensions in the region.