April 10, 2023 – 10:02 PM
During a military show of force around Taiwan, the Chinese navy launched a simulated attack from an aircraft carrier on Monday. Fighter planes have been dispatched from the ship to conclude a military exercise around the island. CNN reports.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense reports that in the past 24 hours, four J-15 fighter jets have entered the southeastern part of the island’s air defense identification zone (that is, they have flown into the Taiwan-designated buffer zone that extends beyond the island’s airspace). This is the first time these machines have penetrated this area.
And the Japanese military leadership confirmed in a press release that eighty fixed-wing aircraft were seen taking off and landing from the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong. The ship was stationed in the Pacific Ocean east of Taiwan, from where it launched J-15s.
Beijing began military exercises on Saturday, a day after Taiwanese President Tsai Jing-wen returned from a 10-day visit to Central America and the United States, where she met with Speaker of the US House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy. Something similar happened at the beginning of 2023 and in August 2022: in the latter case, China responded with large-scale military exercises to the visit of then Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan.
China considers Taiwan, which operates under a self-governing democracy, to be part of its territory, despite the fact that it was never under Chinese rule, and has been trying to isolate it diplomatically for decades. The Chinese leadership described the operation as a “severe warning”. invited him to the island government. But this did not sway President Kaage, who said on Saturday that his government would continue to work with the United States and other democracies.
We have written in detail about scenarios of a possible Chinese occupation of Taiwan here, and about Taiwan’s position in the conflict here.
