TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s military has sent forces to keep watch on a Chinese naval formation led by the aircraft carrier Shandong sailing through the sensitive Taiwan Strait, Taiwan’s defence ministry said on Thursday.
The Shandong participated in Chinese military drills around Taiwan in April, and again entered the Pacific last month.
The ministry said in a statement that the formation led by the Shandong entered the narrow Taiwan Strait on Wednesday afternoon sailing in a northerly direction but keeping to the Chinese side of the waterway’s median line, an unofficial barrier between the two.
As of Thursday morning, it was continuing to sail northwards, the ministry added.
Taiwan has dispatched “appropriate” forces to keep watch, it said, without elaborating.
Japan’s defence ministry said on Monday that the Shandong and other naval ships had sailed to the South China Sea after conducting landing drills in the Pacific Ocean for nine days.
China, which has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, has stepped up military activity near the democratically governed island, responding to what it calls “collusion” between Taiwan and the United States.
Taiwan’s government strongly rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claim.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Christopher Cushing & Simon Cameron-Moore)
