The military deployment around taiwan intensified on Thursday, with the shipment by both China like USA of aircraft carrier near the island, while the Taiwanese president, Tsai Ing-wenmet in California with the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy.
According to official media, a Chinese Navy fleet led by the aircraft carrier shandong it sailed near Taiwan en route to the eastern Pacific, where it is scheduled to do some maneuvers.
The passage of the ships was recorded at about 400 kilometers south of the island on Wednesdayhours before Tsai Ing-wen meet in Los Angeles with kevin mccarthya meeting categorically rejected by China.
According to a statement from the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense, the shandong was detected as it passed through the bashi channel -section that separates Taiwan from the Philippines- in transit to the eastern Pacific, where it was scheduled to begin its first long-range maneuvers on Wednesday.
.video-container { overflow: hidden; position: relative; width:100%; } .video-container::after { padding-top: 56.25%; display: block; content: ”; } .video-container iframe { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }
He shandong It is China’s second aircraft carrier – the first domestically manufactured – and has been in service since 2022.
The military portfolio also denounced the “special patrol operation” announced this week by the Chinese Army in the waters of the Strait of Formosa, which he described as “attempts to intimidate Taiwan and destabilize regional peace and the status quo, an improper behavior of a modern and responsible country”, collected the official agency CNAs.
Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-chengexplained that Shandong was in a “training mission”.
“Because of the delicate [del asunto] At this time, we are still studying the motive of the Chinese communists, and there are several possibilities that we have already worked out countermeasures to prepare for. But it is not in our interest to give more details, ”he said.
“Regarding the content of the mission of shandongshould include the takeoff and war plane landing, but so far we have not detected such situations. We will continue to monitor their movements.”
Chiu said that the Chinese People’s Army had intensified military operations around the island since the visit of the then speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi in August.
“Whenever weather permits, it sends 10 to 20 sorties of warplanes daily for missions near Taiwan, sometimes flying along the median line of the Taiwan Strait, sometimes across it, and sometimes in the far north or southwest of our air defense identification zone,” the minister said.
chiu too stated that the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz it was located about 400 nautical miles (740.8 km) east of Taiwan.
We cannot say for sure if [el Nimitz] it was there because of the Shandong, but it could be something related to the way it was there,” he said.
“vital strategic position”
Chinese analysts quoted by the official Chinese daily Global Times They considered that the Shandong crossing “demonstrates that the second aircraft carrier of the People’s Liberation Army is prepared for offshore operations and to safeguard China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
According to the expert Zhang Xuefengthis type of exercise is to be expected, since the aircraft carrier can only test all its maneuvering capabilities with fleets in the open sea.
Another source who asked not to be named stated that the eastern Pacific waters east of Taiwan and south of Japan are a “vital strategic position” to encircle the island and prevent foreign forces from interfering militarily in the Taiwanese issue.
new tensions
The Chinese military deployment comes amid new tensions between Washington and Beijing on account of the scale made by Tsai in the United States on the occasion of his trip to Central America and the meeting he held yesterday Wednesday with the president of the House of Representatives, kevin mccarthy.
China on Thursday condemned the scale and activities, accused Washington of “collusion” with the island and advanced that it will respond with “resolute and effective measures to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
For his part, The US asked the Asian country “not to overreact” to the meeting and insisted that the Taiwanese president’s passage through her territory is “a stopover” on her trip to Central America, according to the White House spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre.
The situation is reminiscent of the one that occurred last August, when Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan angered Beijing, which called it a “sham” and “deplorable betrayal”.
In response, China imposed sanctions on Pelosisuspended dialogue with the US in several important areas and carried out military maneuvers in the Taiwan Strait of an intensity unprecedented in decades.
the island is one of the biggest causes of conflict between China and the United Statesmainly due to the fact that Washington is Taiwan’s main arms supplier and would be its greatest military ally in the event of a war with China.
China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, which it considers a rogue province since the nationalists of the Kuomintang they withdrew there in 1949 after losing the civil war against the communist army.
(With information from EFE)
Keep reading:
The historic dispute between China and Taiwan: the conflict that terrifies the world
Source-www.infobae.com