China's newest aircraft carrier sailed through Taiwan Strait, Taipei says

TAIPEI — China's newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, the Fujian, sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday (Dec 16), Taiwan's defence ministry said, its first transit of the sensitive waterway since formally entering service last month.

Taiwan, which Beijing views as its territory, reports almost daily Chinese military activity around the island in what Taipei views as an ongoing pressure campaign against the democratically elected government.

In a statement on Wednesday, Taiwan's defence ministry said the Fujian had transited the strait the previous day and that Taiwan's forces had monitored it.

The ministry showed a grainy, black-and-white picture of the carrier with no aircraft on its deck. It did not say where the picture was taken and offered no other details.

China's defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Speaking to lawmakers, Taiwan Defence Minister Wellington Koo said the ship was probably on its way to Shanghai's Changxing island, which is home to China's main naval shipbuilding yard, and that the ministry had not noticed it carrying out any military activities.

China says it alone has sovereignty over the strait, a major maritime artery for cargo traffic. Taiwan and the United States say it is an international waterway.

In a separate statement later on Wednesday, Taiwan's defence ministry said China had been carrying out a "joint combat readiness patrol" near the island, involving 23 warplanes as well as warships, since the morning.

The aircraft included J-10 fighters and nuclear weapon-capable H-6K bombers, it added.

Earlier mission in strait

In September, the same carrier sailed through the Taiwan Strait and into the disputed South China Sea during trials.

The Fujian is China's third aircraft carrier, with a flat flight deck and electromagnetic catapults to launch aircraft that make it a potentially far more powerful naval weapon than China's first two Russian-designed carriers.

The Fujian will be able to carry significantly more, and heavier-armed, jet fighters than the Liaoning and Shandong carriers, which are smaller and rely on ramps to launch aircraft.

The Fujian is also expected to host a larger and wider range of planes than the other two carriers — including early-warning aircraft and, eventually, China's first carrier-capable stealth jet fighters.

China's President Xi Jinping attended its commissioning and flag-presentation ceremony in the southern island province of Hainan last month and boarded the vessel for an inspection tour.

Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, saying only the island's people can decide their future.

[[nid:726809]]