TAIPEI –
A group of Chinese warships led by China’s exclusive aircraft carrier, China’s so-called routine maneuvers, said on Monday after passing south Taiwan into the South China Sea peninsula, the defense ministry of the autonomous island.
The move comes from renewed tensions in Taiwan, which Beijing claims to be incompatible with state-to-state relations and to bother Beijing after President Donald Trump, the US president, calls the island’s president.
The Soviet-built Liaoning Airlines took part in previous exercises, including some exercises in the South China Sea, but China was a few years away from perfect airline operations, similar to what the United States had practiced for decades.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense said that the carrier, accompanied by five vessels, flew southwest of the Taiwan-controlled Platamese Islands to the south-east.
Transportation Group as early as the southernmost tip of southern Taiwan, 90 nautical miles, after the Bashi Channel, Taiwan and the Philippines.
“Vigilance and flexibility have always been a normal way to maintain airspace security,” Minister Chen said, adding that Taiwanese fighters have been disrupted or whether submarines have been deployed.
Chen said the ministry continued to “monitor and grasp the situation.”
Taiwan’s senior opposition National Assembly Speaker Johnson said that the Liaoning exercise is the Chinese signal to the United States, it broke through including the Japanese Ryukyu Islands and Taiwan, including the “first island chain.”
The US State Department said on Monday that its position has not changed since July, saying it is continuing to monitor China’s military modernization and wants the Defense Forces exercise to be in line with the law. The Pentagon’s representative declined to comment.
Trump spokesman Hipp Hicks said the team did not comment on China’s actions. Trump took office on January 20, but has made headlines in a series of statements by China and Taiwan.
In Beijing, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Huachun Ying said that the people should not be too much to see the carrier’s thing, because its movement in the legal context.
“We in Liaoning should enjoy freedom of navigation and international law in accordance with the law, and we hope that all parties will respect China’s right,” she said in a daily news briefing.
The influential countries run the Chinese tabloid “Global Times”, said the exercise shows how operators are improving their combat capability, it should now navigate further afield.
“Sooner or later, the Chinese fleet will go to the East Pacific Ocean, when China’s aircraft carrier fleet in the United States one day when offshore areas, will lead to the sea rules of intense thinking,” the newspaper said in an editorial.
China has recently been outraged by the US Navy patrols near China, which it calls the islands in the South China Sea. This month, the Chinese navy seized an underwater UAV in the South China Sea. China was back again.
Japan said late Sunday that it had found six Chinese naval vessels, including Liaoning, through the passage between Miyako and Okinawa and the Pacific Ocean.
Japan’s top government spokesman said on Monday that the voyage shows the expansion of China’s military power, Japan is closely monitored.
The Chinese Air Force conducted long-range exercises this month in the east and south China seas, shaking Japan and Taiwan. China says these exercises are also routine.
Last December, the Ministry of Defense confirmed that China is building a second aircraft carrier, but its launch date is not clear. An aircraft carrier flight is a state secret.
The Pentagon said in a report last year that Beijing could build several aircraft carriers in the next 15 years.
China claims that most of the South China Sea, through the annual trade of about 5 trillion dollars of ships. The neighboring countries Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have also claimed.
