Several Chinese naval warships, including Chinese aircraft carrier “Shandong”, have been spotted, outside Japan’s EEZ in the western Pacific.
The Chinese military exercises coincide with a Nato summit in Washington where a draft communique says China has become a decisive enabler of Russia’s war effort in Ukraine and Beijing continues to pose systemic challenges to Europe and to security.
The Chinese carrier the Shandong passed close to the Philippines on its way to the Pacific exercises, Taiwan’s defence minister said on Wednesday.
In its daily update on Chinese military activity over the past 24 and released on Thursday morning, Taiwan’s defence ministry said it had detected 66 Chinese military aircraft operating around the island.
Of those, 39 passed to the south and southeast of Taiwan, the ministry said, having previously said it had detected 36 aircraft heading to the Western Pacific to carry out drills with the Chinese aircraft carrier the Shandong.
Taiwan’s defence ministry released two pictures, a grainy black and white one of a Chinese J-16 fighter and a colour one of a nuclear-capable H-6 bomber, which it said were taken recently, but did not say exactly where or when.
