Taiwan scrambled
jets and navy ships on Wednesday as a group of Chinese warships, led by its
sole aircraft carrier, sailed through the Taiwan Strait, the latest sign of
heightened tension between Beijing and the self-ruled island.
China's Soviet-built
Liaoning aircraft carrier, returning from exercises in the South China Sea, was
not encroaching in Taiwan's territorial waters but entered its air defense
identification zone in the southwest, Taiwan's defense ministry said.
As a result, Taiwan
scrambled jets and navy 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.
Taiwan military
aircraft and ships have been deployed to follow the carrier group, which is
sailing up the west side of the median line of the strait, he said.
Taiwan's top
policymaker for China affairs urged Beijing to resume dialogue, after official
communication channels were suspended by Beijing from June.
"I want to
emphasize our government has sufficient capability to protect our national
security. It's not necessary to overly panic," said Chang Hsiao-yueh,
minister for Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, during a news briefing in
response to reporters' questions on the Liaoning.
"On the other
hand, any threats would not benefit cross-Strait ties," she said.
China has said the
Liaoning was on an exercise to test weapons and equipment in the disputed South
China Sea and its movements complied with international law.
On the weekend, a
Chinese bomber flew around the Spratly Islands in a show of "strategic
force", a U.S. official said on Tuesday.
The latest Chinese
exercises have unnerved Beijing's neighbors, especially Taiwan which Beijing
claims as its own, given long-running territorial disputes in the South China
Sea.
Chinese Vice Foreign
Minister Liu Zhenmin said China's ships "couldn't always remain in
port" and the navy had to hone its capabilities.
"The Taiwan
Strait is an international waterway shared between the mainland and Taiwan. So,
it is normal for the Liaoning to go back and forth through the Taiwan Strait in
the course of training, and it won't have any impact on cross-Strait
relations," Liu said at a briefing on Asia-Pacific security.
China claims most of
the energy-rich waters of the South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion
in ship-borne trade passes every year. Neighbors Brunei, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.
China distrusts
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and has stepped up pressure on her after U.S.
President-elect Donald Trump broke years of diplomatic protocol and took a
congratulatory call last month from her.
Trump then riled
China by casting doubt on the "one China" policy that Beijing regards
as the basis of U.S.-Chinese relations.
Tsai drew anger from
China again when she met senior U.S. Republican lawmakers in Houston on Sunday
en route to Central America, in a transit stop that Beijing had asked the
United States to not allow.
Beijing suspects
Tsai wants to push for the island's formal independence, a red line for the
mainland, which has never renounced the use of force to bring what it deems a
renegade province under its control.
Tsai says she wants
to maintain peace with China.
REUTERS
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