According to China, drilling groups will practice near Taiwan, exercises will be regular

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – A Chinese support group is practicing near Taiwan and such exercises will be regular, the Chinese navy said late Monday in a further increase in tensions near the island that Beijing claims is its sovereign territory.

Taiwan has been complaining in recent months about an increase in Chinese military activity in the area as China intensifies efforts to assert its sovereignty over the democratically governed island.

The Chinese navy said the carrier group, led by Liaoning, the country’s first actively engaged aircraft carrier, was conducting ‘routine’ exercises in the waters near Taiwan.

The aim is to “improve its ability to protect national sovereignty, security and development interests”, he said.

“Similar exercises will be carried out regularly in the future,” the navy added without expanding.

China’s statement follows the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense, which on Monday announced a new invasion by China’s air force into the island’s air defense identification zone.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it had a “full understanding” of the situation in the air and at sea around Taiwan and that it was “handling the matter properly”.

The Japanese Ministry of Defense said on Sunday that Liaoning, accompanied by five escort ships, crossed Miyako Strait on its way to the Pacific Ocean.

In China’s widely read Global Times, published by the ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily, it was noted that Nanchang, the first of a powerful new fleet of Type 055 destroyers to enter service last year, was part of the carrier group.

“The combination of aircraft carriers and Type 055 large destroyers will become a standard configuration of task forces for Chinese aircraft carriers in the future,” he added.

The Liaoning and its sister ship Shandong had previously drilled or sailed near Taiwan.

In December 2019, shortly before the presidential and parliamentary elections in Taiwan, Shandong sailed through the sensitive Strait of Taiwan, a move condemned by Taiwan in an attempt to intimidate.

Taiwan is China’s most sensitive area issue and a potential military hotspot. China has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control.

Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, oversees an overhaul of the island’s military island and introduces new equipment such as a carrier killer hide-and-seek corvettes.