A Chinese aircraft carrier sailed through waters off northeastern Taiwan on Monday and headed toward Japan's southernmost island of Yonaguni, Taiwan's defense ministry said.
The oldest of Taiwan's three aircraft carriers, the Liaoning, along with other Chinese navy ships, passed through the area at around 1:30 a.m. (6:30 p.m. Tuesday ET).
"During the passage, the armed forces maintained full control over the dynamics in the surrounding sea and air area, deploying mission aircraft, ships and ground-based missile systems, with strict surveillance and monitoring, and responding appropriately as needed," the official statement said.
Between 06:00 on Tuesday (23:00 on Monday in Lisbon) and 06:00 today (23:00 on Tuesday in Lisbon), the ministry also recorded the presence of 13 warships and one official Chinese vessel near the island.
In a recent statement, Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), the body responsible for relations with mainland China, warned that Beijing could use its aircraft carriers to encircle Taiwan and prevent any external assistance through a strategy called "anti-access/area denial".
The MAC concluded that the aircraft carriers Liaoning and Shandong "are developing combat capabilities" and "conducting long-term training beyond the first island chain", with the aim of "building a defense capability between the first and second island chains".
The first island chain is a strategic concept that usually refers to the line that runs from the Kuril Islands, through Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines, to Singapore, while the second island chain stretches from the Japanese Ogasawara Archipelago to Palau in the South Pacific.
The island of Taiwan - to which the Chinese Nationalist army retreated after being defeated by communist troops in the civil war - has been governed autonomously since 1949, although Beijing claims sovereignty over the island, for whose "reunification" it does not exclude the use of force.
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