Three Chinese warships including the Shandong aircraft carrier have passed through the Taiwan Strait as Beijing keeps up pressure on the self-ruled island it claims as its own. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it was monitoring the movements of the ships and will respond accordingly.
The ministry said in a tweet that the three vessels were headed north along the Taiwan Strait at noon on Saturday and were steering along the west of the median line, an unofficial boundary once tacitly accepted by both sides.
It also said in the 24 hours it detected 33 China‘s People’s Liberation Army aircraft and 10 navy vessels around Taiwan.
Twelve of the aircraft had crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or entered the island’s air defence identification zone.
Taiwan’s armed forces deployed aircraft, navy vessels and land-based missile systems in response to the provocation.
Earlier this month, the United States reached a modest trade agreement with Taiwan, signalling Washington’s support for the island democracy.
The agreement did not require the approval of the US Congress, but there is broad, bipartisan support for Taiwan in Washington.
Relations between the US and China – the world’s two largest economies – have deteriorated in recent years.
The United States accuses China of predatory economic practices and has criticised Beijing’s crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong and the Muslim region of Xinjiang as well as its bullying of neighbours, including Taiwan, over territorial claims.
Taiwan is the world’s leading producer of computer chips with the United States last year buying £85billion ($105billion) worth of goods and services from the island nation, which is the 10th-biggest source of US imports.
American exports to Taiwan came to almost £44.5billion ($55billion), making it America’s 15th-biggest foreign market.
On Tuesday, China’s new ambassador to the US Xie Feng told reporters relations between the two countries face “serious difficulties and challenges”.
Xie said: “We hope the United States will work together with China to increase dialogue, to manage differences and also to expand our cooperation so that our relationship will be back on the right track.”
He added that the “Taiwan question” would be among the sensitive issues at the top of his agenda.
Relations deteriorated after former President Donald Trump’s administration raised tariffs on key Chinese imports. President Joe Biden has since maintained them, while blocking Chinese companies from accessing the most cutting-edge computer chip technology.
The shootdown in February of a suspected Chinese spy balloon which had traversed the US led to Washington cancelling a visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, pushing back a resumption of visits interrupted by China’s strict Covid travel restrictions.
Dialogue has been maintained on neutral territory, however, with top Communist Party diplomat Wang Yi holding talks with White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan in Vienna earlier this month.
Economic and person-to-person ties also remain robust, with bilateral trade last year topping £558billion ($690billion).
