China announced on Monday, April 10, 2023, that it was simulating “sealing off” Taiwan in a third day of drills as it appeared to use an aircraft carrier to launch jets towards the island.
Taiwan said that it had detected jets to its east while China said its Shandong aircraft carrier had taken part. Beijing began the exercises on Saturday, April 8, 2023, after Taiwan President, Tsai Ing-wen held talks with U.S House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy in California as part of her 10-day trip to the U.S and Central America.
Taiwan considers itself a sovereign state. China sees it as a breakaway province that will eventually be brought under Beijing’s control, by force if necessary.
On Monday, Taiwan said it had spotted another 70 warplanes and 11 ships in its surrounding waters.
A map of flight paths released by Taiwan’s defense ministry showed four J-15 fighter jets to the island’s east, suggesting that the Chinese military is for the first time simulating strikes from the east rather than the west where China’s mainland lies.
Analysts opined that it was likely that the jets had come from China’s Shandong aircraft carrier; one of two such carriers it possesses, which is currently deployed in the western Pacific ocean, about 320km (200 miles) from Taiwan.
The Chinese military confirmed on Monday in a statement that the Shandong had “participated” in Monday’s exercises. It said fighter planes loaded with live ammunition had “carried out multiple waves of simulated strikes on important targets”.
Japan’s defense ministry said on Monday that the Shandong had also conducted air operations in the preceding days. Jet fighters and helicopters took off and landed on the carrier 120 times between Friday and Sunday, the Japanese ministry disclosed.
So far, the drills are not as big as those that followed Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei last August. Pelosi’s high-profile visit to Taiwan last August, while she was the U.S House of Representatives Speaker, was followed by four days of unprecedented military drills, which saw China fire ballistic missiles into the seas around Taiwan.
Pelosi was the highest-ranking US official to land in Taiwan since the 1990s.
China Claims USS Milius Has “Illegally Intruded” Into Its Waters
Also on Monday the U.S sent the USS Milius, a guided-missile destroyer, through part of the South China Sea about 1,300km (800 miles) south of Taiwan.
China said the ship had “illegally intruded” into its waters, while the U.S maintained that the operation was consistent with international law.
Washington had repeatedly called for China to exercise restraint following President Tsai’s meeting with Kevin McCarthy, the third most senior U.S government figure. Beijing meanwhile had warned the U.S and Taiwan of “resolute counter-measures” if President Tsai Ing-wen met Kevin McCarthy.
China announced the drills after top foreign leaders it was hosting, including French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, left the country.
Macron later urged Europe not to get dragged into a confrontation between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan in remarks that have attracted some criticism.
On his flight out of China, Macron told reporters that Europe risked getting “caught up in crises that are not ours” and this would make it harder to build “strategic autonomy”.
However, some analysts say such military exercises may have diminishing impact over time.
“To maintain the same fear factor, [China will] have to ramp it up bigger and bigger each time as their actions will have a normalizing effect after a while,” said Ian Chong, a non-resident scholar at Carnegie China.
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