A Chinese naval fleet led by the aircraft carrier Shandong sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Saturday afternoon, the island's Defense Ministry reported that same evening. The fleet consisted of two additional ships and sailed in a northerly direction, just west of the median line of the Taiwan Strait.
Taiwan's Defense Ministry, through its General Sun Li-fang, reported that the situation was closely monitored and aircraft, ships and coastal defense systems were deployed.
This type of approach is frequent in the area, both by sea and by air, the last being the one carried out on Friday, May 26.
That day, twelve People's Liberation Army (PLA) planes entered Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), with eight of them crossing the median line. The aircraft included fighters, an anti-submarine warfare plane, an anti-submarine warfare helicopter, and a reconnaissance drone.
In addition to this raid on the ADIZ, a further 21 planes and 10 PLA vessels were also observed in the airspace and waters around Taiwan in the span of 24 hours.
Military experts quoted by the Taiwanese news agency CNA described the transit of these PLA vehicles as a "grey area" tactic used by China to intimidate Taiwan and assert its territorial claims.
Shandong was also present at the military exercises that China organized around Taiwan last April to simulate a blockade of the island.
Beijing has considered Taiwan a rogue province since Kuomintang nationalists withdrew there in 1949 after losing the civil war to the communist army.
