China Carries Out Exercises With Carrier Around Taiwan, Anchors Its Largest Coast Guard Vessel In Philippine EEZ

Taiwan has been reporting larger-than-normal incursions into its ADIZ since the recent inauguration of Taiwan’s new president Lai Ching Te, who China has called a “dangerous separatist”.

TAIPEI - The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense has been closely monitoring Chinese air and naval exercises around Taiwan, which includes its Shandong Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier which passed close to the Philippine islands, according to Taiwan’s Defense Minister on Wednesday.

Shandong Aircraft Carrier - Chinese Military

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Taiwanese Defense Ministry spokesperson Sun Li-fang released a statement that said, "The military has a detailed grasp of the activities in the seas and waters around the Taiwan Strait, including of the Chinese communist[‘s] aircraft and ships”.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense reported that the Shandong aircraft carrier carried out military drills along with air and naval forces around the island of Taiwan, with 66 Chinese military aircraft being spotted by the Defense Ministry on July 11th, 56 of which entered the island’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).

日本防衛省・統合幕僚監部, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The ministry has been reporting larger-than-normal incursions into its ADIZ since the recent inauguration of Taiwan’s new president Lai Ching Te, who China has called a “dangerous separatist”.

Taiwan’s defense minister Wellington Koo said that the Shandong aircraft carrier didn’t pass “through the Bashi Channel,” where Chinese vessels often pass through south of Taiwan, but rather “went further south through the Balingtang Channel towards the Western Pacific,” just north of the Philippine island of Babuyan, around 155 miles south of the Bashi Channel.

Japan also reported that four Chinese naval vessels, which included the Shandong aircraft carrier traveled around 323 miles southeast of Japan’s Miyako island, with "Fighter aircraft and helicopters" taking off and landing on the carrier.

The Philippine military public affairs chief also reported that a military exercise between China and Russia was underway in the Philippine Sea, but did not mention the Shandong aircraft carrier’s activities in the region.

Philippines: China Anchored Its Largest Coast Guard Vessel Within Its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ):