Taipei scrambles jets, navy
Taiwan scrambled jets and navy ships yesterday as a group of Chinese warships, led by its sole aircraft carrier, sailed through the Taiwan Strait, the latest sign of heightened tension between Beijing and the self-ruled island.
China's Soviet-built Liaoning aircraft carrier, returning from exercises in the South China Sea, was not encroaching in Taiwan's territorial waters but entered its air defence identification zone in the southwest, Taiwan's defence ministry said.
As a result, Taiwan scrambled jets and navy ships to "surveil and control" the passage of the Chinese ships north through the body of water separating Taiwan and China, Taiwan defence ministry spokesman Chen Chung-chi said.
Taiwan military aircraft and ships have been deployed to follow the carrier group, which is sailing up the west side of the median line of the strait, he said.
Taiwan's top policymaker for China affairs urged Beijing to resume dialogue, after official communication channels were suspended by Beijing from June.
"I want to emphasise our government has sufficient capability to protect our national security. It's not necessary to overly panic," said Chang Hsiao-yueh, minister for Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, during a news briefing in response to reporters' questions on the Liaoning.
"On the other hand, any threats would not benefit cross-Strait ties," she said.
The latest Chinese exercises have unnerved Beijing's neighbours, especially Taiwan which Beijing claims as its own, given long-running territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said China's ships "couldn't always remain in port" and the navy had to hone its capabilities.
"The Taiwan Strait is an international waterway shared between the mainland and Taiwan," Liu said at a briefing on Asia-Pacific security.
Meanwhile, The Philippines, seeking to improve relations with China, hopes a framework for a code of conduct in the disputed South China Sea will be completed by the middle of this year, its foreign minister said yesterday.
Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay said the code would help de-escalate tension in the waters, where China has started militarising artificial islands built after the Philippines filed an arbitration case against Beijing in The Hague.
The tribunal ruled last year in Manila's favour, rejecting China's claims to the waterway. But the ruling will not be on the agenda of this year's Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit, a Philippine official said last week.
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