Taiwan scrambles fighter jets as China carrier enters strait

China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier with accompanying fleet conducts a drill in an area of the South China Sea. /Reuters

 

Taiwan’s military was on placed on high alert as a group of Chinese ships, led by the Liaoning aircraft carrier, transited the Taiwan Strait on Jan. 11.

According to Taiwan’s Defense Ministry, Beijing’s Soviet-built aircraft carrier, returning from exercises in the South China Sea, had not entered Taiwan’s territorial waters but did enter its air defense identification zone in the southwest.

Taiwan sent its aircraft and ships to “surveil and control” the passage of the Chinese ships north through the body of water separating Taiwan and China, Taiwan defense ministry spokesman Chen Chung-chi said.

China continued land reclamation in sea despite ‘halt’: expert

China was carrying out land reclamation in contested waters of the South China Sea this month, more than four weeks after saying it had stopped such activity, a US expert said Tuesday, citing recent satellite images.

The evidence of continued dredging in the Spratly archipelago could complicate a visit to the United States by Chinese President Xi Jinping next week, when US concerns about China’s assertive pursuit of territorial claims in Asia are expected to be high on the agenda.

PLA aircraft could threaten Guam, says analyst

Just as China-Japan relations had begun warming up, Japan reported on Dec. 6 that five Chinese military aircraft were observed flying over an area between Okinawa’s main island of Okinawa and Miyako island. The five aircraft are believed to have been capable of posing a threat to Guam, according to a military expert.

Chinese military commentator Li Xiaojian said the jets may have departed for the Western Pacific to take part in a large-scale naval and air combat exercise, in which Chinese naval ships also participated. This also signals that China has the joint combat capability of combining its naval and air power.

China builds military airstrip on disputed island

The newly built facility stretches across Woody Island, part of the Paracel chain, China’s Xinhua news agency said late Tuesday.

The Paracels are also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan, and tensions between Beijing and Hanoi rose this year over Chinese construction and oil exploration there.

The runway is Beijing’s latest physical assertion of control in the area, two years after it declared a city named Sansha centered on Woody Island — known as Yongxing in Chinese — to administer vast swathes of the South China Sea.

Chinese military planes enter Taiwan’s airspace: Taipei

Taipei: Two Chinese military planes entered Taiwan’s air defence identification zone on August 25, island Defence Minister Yen Ming said.

“We responded immediately, asking them to leave,” Mr Yen said in an interview in Taipei. Taiwan dispatched fighter jets to intercept the surveillance aircraft, the Taipei-based Central News Agency reported yesterday.

Japan, China in war of words as Tokyo scrambles jets to monitor Beijing military planes

The rhetoric between Asia’s two superpowers is becoming more belligerent with China warning that if Japan carries out a threat to shoot down foreign drones, it would be an act of war.

Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe has issued his own warning, saying Tokyo is prepared to be more assertive towards Beijing, while also telling China not to use force to try to change the regional balance of power.

Over the weekend, Japan twice scrambled fighter jets to monitor Chinese military aircraft flying near Okinawa.