Chinese aircraft carrier drills pose threat to eastern Taiwan: Experts
ROC Central News Agency
04/10/2023 03:39 PM
Taipei, April 10 (CNA) Warplanes from the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong, which is currently located about 200 nautical miles east of Taiwan, successfully conducted takeoff and landing drills on Sunday, which local military specialists warned could pose a serious threat to eastern Taiwan if a war breaks out.
Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) said last week that it has been tracking the deployment of the Shandong since it departed from Sanya Naval Port in South China's Hainan Province earlier this month.
The aircraft carrier last Wednesday passed through the Bashi Channel south of Taiwan and sailed into the West Pacific, where it was expected to carry out its first long-range training mission in that area, the MND said.
A military source familiar with the matter told CNA on Monday that a round of drills involving warplanes landing and taking off was held on the Shandong Sunday, as part of a three-day People's Liberation Army's (PLA) exercise that started Saturday in response to a meeting between President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California last week.
Among the 35 Chinese military aircraft that flew into Taiwan's southwestern Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) on Sunday, four of them, all J-15 fighters, took off from the Shandong, the source revealed.
Asked about the significance of such PLA drills, retired Air Force Lieutenant General Chang Yen-ting (張延廷) told CNA that China's drills from both the Taiwan Strait on the west side of Taiwan and the Pacific Ocean on the east side are meant to turn the strait into China's own inland sea instead of an international waterway.
Chang said the drills show that the Shandong aircraft carrier is now a serious threat to eastern Taiwan, which Taiwan's military has traditionally used to preserve and maintain its combat readiness in the event of a full-scale invasion by the PLA, since the region is protected by the central mountain range on the west.
Therefore, it is essential for Taiwan to enhance its air defense capabilities and have additional runways in its eastern counties of Hualien and Taitung, given that the PLA is now capable of launching attacks from waters east of Taiwan thanks to its new aircraft carrier, the Shandong, he added.
Sharing similar concerns, Chieh Chung (揭仲), an associate research fellow with the National Policy Foundation in Taipei, told CNA that the Shandong is estimated to be able to accommodate 24 to 32 military aircraft in total.
This time four J-15 fighters have been found to have taken off from the Shandong before flying into Taiwan's southwestern ADIZ, Chieh said, and four fighters constitute one tactical flying formation, which poses a "serious and immediate" threat to Taiwan.
He went on to say that once the Shandong officially enters combat readiness mode, China will have two aircraft carrier battle groups to deploy around Taiwan.
This means that the eastern region is facing a significant threat, with Taiwan having little options to protect itself other than its submarines and missile-carrying fighters, Chieh warned.
Echoing Chieh, Lin Ying-yu (林穎佑), an assistant professor at Tamkang University's Institute of Strategic Studies, said the Shandong's participation in the PLA's ongoing drills meant eastern Taiwan is no longer a safe haven for Taiwanese military forces during an invasion.
The PLA's landing and taking off drills on the Shandong is meant to test its capacities in Anti-Access/Area Denial should the United States attempt to interfere in a cross-strait war, Lin said.
For Taiwan's safety, it must boost its submarine forces so that it can work with U.S. forces to stop a PLA invasion, he added.
The Shandong is China's second aircraft carrier, and the first carrier to be entirely built by its domestic shipbuilding industry. It was commissioned into the PLA Navy on Dec. 17, 2019 in Sanya, Hainan Province.
China launched its first aircraft carrier Liaoning in 2012. The vessel was a refurbished Soviet Kuznetsov-class cruiser carrier purchased in an incomplete state.
(By Matt Yu and Joseph Yeh)
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