Liaoning launches a J-15. (Photo : US Navy)
China's only aircraft carrier, the CNS Liaoning (016), sailed into the disputed South China Sea and close to Taiwan on Dec. 26 following live fire exercises in the Western Pacific.
Liaoning's detour into the South China Sea off Taiwan instead of heading back to its homeport in Qingdao, headquarters of the North Sea Fleet of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), is being seen by western analysts as a continuation of a show of force that began Dec. 16.
The Liaoning is being escorted by five other warships, most of them guided missile destroyers, said the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of China (Taiwan).
The ministry said the Liaoning's battle group passed Taiwan on en route to the South China Sea. The PLAN warships
sailed past the Pratas Islands, an atoll controlled by Taiwan in the northern part of the South China Sea, before turning south into the South China Sea.
The ministry said the Liaoning battle group on Christmas Day sailed to within 90 nautical miles south of Taiwan in the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines.
The approach of PLAN warships close to Taiwan and one of the islands it controls is also seen as a veiled threat directed against Taiwan, which is seen by Beijing as an ally of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen continues to reject Beijing's "One China Principle" that Taiwan is part of China. Beijing claims Taiwan as its own territory and says Taiwan's rejecting this principle will destabilize relations.
More hawkish generals of the People's Liberation Army recently urged China to invade Taiwan at the earliest, most appropriate moment.
Trump ignited tensions with China over Taiwan after he spoke on the phone with Tsai. It was the first time a president or president-elect of the United States has spoken to a Taiwanese president since the U.S. severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1979.
