China sends carrier through Taiwan Strait after Xi Jinping warns against separatism
Island’s defence minister says Liaoning entered the area on the same day leader warned of ‘punishment of history’
Taiwan has sent ships and aircraft to shadow an aircraft carrier group from the Chinese mainland through the narrow Taiwan Strait, its defence ministry said on Wednesday, after Chinese President Xi Jinping offered his strongest warning against Taiwan separatism to date.
Beijing claims the self-ruled island as its sacred territory and considers it a wayward province, which Xi said on Tuesday would face the “punishment of history” for any attempt at separatism.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said the carrier group, led by the mainland’s sole operational aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, entered the waterway late on Tuesday, but kept on its western side.
By midday on Wednesday it had left Taiwan’s air defence identification zone heading southwest, the ministry said, adding it looked like Beijing was conducting drills.
Taiwan’s military sent ships and aircraft to shadow the carrier group the entire way, but spotted nothing out of the ordinary and people in Taiwan should not be concerned, it said.
The mainland’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.