China’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, the Fujian, sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, the Taiwanese defence ministry said, the first such mission in the sensitive waterway since April.
Taiwan, which Beijing views as its territory, reports almost daily Chinese military activity around the island in what Taipei views as an ongoing pressure campaign against the democratically elected government.
In a brief statement, the ministry said the Fujian had passed through the strait.
The military used “joint intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance methods to closely monitor it”, the ministry added, without elaborating.
It also showed a black-and-white picture of the ship taken from above, though there were no aircraft visible on its deck. It did not say exactly where or how the picture was taken.
China’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside business hours.
PRESSURE CAMPAIGN
China has this month begun using what Taiwan describes as a new pressure tactic, sending coast guard ships along the island’s east coast to create an impression of Chinese jurisdiction in those waters, to Taipei’s anger.
Speaking to the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents’ Club on Tuesday, Taipei’s top China policymaker said the government refuses to accept
