Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said three Chinese ships, including the aircraft carrier Shandong, sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Saturday.
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“ A three-ship PLA (People’s Liberation Army) flotilla, led by the aircraft carrier Shandong, crossed the Taiwan Strait around noon today the island’s ministry said in a statement. The ships headed west of the center line, heading north “, he added, in reference to this invisible border drawn unilaterally by the United States during the Cold War, which Beijing refuses to recognize.
While the presence of Chinese warships in the Taiwan Strait is constantly monitored and announced almost daily by Taipei, that of the aircraft carrier Shandong is unusual. Taiwanese Armed Forces monitored the situation and tasked (civilian air patrol) aircraft, navy ships and land-based missile systems to respond to these activities “, specified the ministry of the island.
China regards Taiwan as a province that it has not yet managed to reunite with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Relations between Beijing and Taipei, at their lowest since the arrival in power of Xi Jinping, more than ten years ago, have further deteriorated in recent years and China has multiplied the military incursions around the island.
In August 2022, China had deployed a large number of aircraft and carried out missile launches near Taiwan, in what constitutes its most important military maneuvers ever conducted in the Taiwan Strait, after the visit of the former “ speaker Democrat Nancy Pelosi in Taipei.
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(With agencies)
