PLA encircles Taiwan island with carrier drills amid US, Japanese provocations

Starting a routine, realistic combat training mission in the West Pacific about a week ago, the Liaoning aircraft carrier group of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy has reportedly been practicing intensively over the past few days in the Philippine Sea to the east of the island of Taiwan and south of Japan, a location that experts said is a vital place to stop potential external interference in event of a reunificationby-force operation in the Taiwan Straits.

With the carrier group to Taiwan’s east, the PLA also reportedly dispatched an increased number of different types of warplanes and additional warships from the Chinese mainland west of the island of Taiwan, effectively surrounding and enclosing the island under the watch of US and Japanese aircraft carriers, which are serving as “perfect practice partners” for the PLA drills, analysts said.

After reporting a PLA Navy flotilla, consisting of the aircraft carrier Liaoning, a Type 055 large destroyer, three Type 052D destroyers, a Type 052C destroyer, a Type 054A frigate and a Type 901 comprehensive supply ship, sailed from the East China Sea through the Miyako Strait to the Pacific Ocean on May 2, Japan’s Ministry of Defense Joint Staff released monitoring reports for five consecutive days from Wednesday to Sunday. It said the carrier group conducted intensive, cross-day-and-night carrier-based aircraft training with live munitions in the Philippine Sea east of the island of Taiwan and south of Japan from Tuesday to Saturday.

The Liaoning carrier group was sailing slowly closer to the island of Taiwan as its drills went on, the Japanese releases show.

The Philippine Sea where the Liaoning carrier group is holding drills is a vital sea region should a reunification-by-force operation take place, Shi Hong, executive chief editor of Chinese mainland magazine Shipborne Weapons, told the Global Times on Sunday.

By moving in tandem with aerial and maritime forces from the Chinese mainland, the carrier group could completely cut off the routes foreign forces may take if they militarily interfere with the Taiwan question, and this will bring significant advantages to the PLA, Shi said.

Just as the Liaoning carrier group was practicing to the east of Taiwan, Taiwan’s defense authority reported significant increases of PLA warplane activities to the island’s southwest and southeast in terms of both aircraft types and sortie numbers from Thursday to Sunday. A total of 31 PLA aircraft sorties featuring H6 bombers, J-11 and J-16 fighter jets, KJ-500 early warning aircraft, Y-8 anti-submarine warfare aircraft and electronic warfare aircraft, as well as Ka-28 antisubmarine warfare helicopters were spotted by Taiwan’s defense authority during those days.