Aircraft carrier Shandong sails thru Taiwan Straits: reports
▶ May on route to base after gaining combat ability
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army ( PLA) Navy’s second aircraft carrier, the Shandong, sailed through the Taiwan Straits on Sunday toward the south in a combat group of four other PLA warships, media reported.
The move was likely part of its journey from Northeast China to return to its home port on the doorstep of the South China Sea for future missions after gaining combat capability through three training voyages over the past year amid the COVID- 19 pandemic, analysts said.
Taiwan’s defense authority on Sunday said that the Shandong aircraft carrier of the PLA Navy, together with four other affiliated warships, on Thursday set out from Dalian, Northeast China’s Liaoning Province and on Sunday crossed the Taiwan Straits and continued its way southward, media on the island reported Sunday.
Claiming it monitored the PLA warships’ transits with six ships and eight aircraft, the island’s military said the situation was “under control,” the report said.
Xu Guangyu, a senior adviser to the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, told the Global Times that since the Shandong will likely be deployed for activities in the South China Sea, it was likely sailing back to its naval base in Sanya, South China’s Hainan Province after finishing its third voyage in 2020.
After its commissioning ceremony in Sanya on December 17, 2019, the Shandong returned to the Dalian Shipyard where it was constructed, conducting three training voyages throughout the year. The first was reportedly held in the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea from May 25 to June 17, the second took place in the Bohai Sea from September 1 to 22, and the third from November 21 to December 13 in the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea, and featured key training subjects including maximum sorties and recovery exercises for J- 15 fighter jets that led military observers to believe the Shandong was about to reach initial operational capability.
It was a year struck by the COVID- 19 pandemic, and many warships, including four US aircraft carriers were severely hit by the novel coronavirus. But the Shandong does not seem to have been affected by the virus due to its effective epidemic control and prevention measures, smoothly conducted training and exercises, and for the first time since COVID- 19, the vessel sailed through the Taiwan Straits, analysts noted.
By sailing through the Taiwan Straits, which is to the west of Taiwan island, rather than a route on the east side, the PLA could be understood as demonstrating its control in the Straits and China’s sovereignty over the island of Taiwan, Xu said.
Experts said that the Chinese mainland will operate more and more aircraft carriers, and transits in the Taiwan Straits will only become more frequent.