The Chinese aircraft carrier CNS Shandong (17) made its first deployment to the Western Pacific for 2025 and was a major unit in Tuesday’s military drill targeted at intimidating Taiwan last week, according to Beijing officials, US Naval Institute News reports.
The drills were presented as a “stern warning” from China to leaders in Taipei with foreign ministry officials calling reunification an “unstoppable trend,” said a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson in a Tuesday press conference.
The drills are, “combat readiness patrols at sea and in the air, seizing comprehensive control, striking maritime and land targets and imposing blockade controls on key areas and routes,” according to a statement from the People’s Liberation Army.
On Tuesday, Japan’s Joint Staff Office said the Shandong carrier strike group comprising of Shandong, cruiser CNS Xianyang (108), destroyer CNS Zhanjiang and frigate CNS Hengshui (572) sailed in an area 273 miles south of Japan’s Yonaguni Island. A map provided with the release shows the Shandong CSG operating southeast from Taiwan’s southeast coast. Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) destroyer JS Onami (DD-111) shadowed the PLAN CSG, according to the release.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) said in a Tuesday post on social media channel X, that PLAN ships, led by Shandong, entered Taiwan’s response zone on Monday.
“PRC continues to escalate military activities in the Taiwan Strait and Indo-Pacific region, intensifying military threats, challenging the international order and regional stability, thereby becoming the greatest ‘troublemaker’ in the eyes of the international community,” reads a statement from the MND.
The MND, on Tuesday, said 71 Chinese military aircraft were detected operating around Taiwan, of which 36 entered Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) along with 21 PLAN ships and four China Coast Guard (CCG) ships.
The MND also released a video showing Republic Of China Navy (ROCN) ships monitoring PLAN ships, the segments showing frigate ROCS Tian Dan (PFG2-1110) monitoring Shandong and Zhanjiang, destroyer ROCS Su Ao (DDG-1802) (ex-USS Callaghan DDG-994) shadowing Shandongand later Shandong together with Zhanjiang, destroyer ROCS Tso Ying (DDG-1803) (ex-USS KiddDDG-993) monitoring destroyer CNS Xining (117) and frigate ROCS Yi Yang (FFG-939) (ex-USS ValdezFF-1096) monitoring frigate CNS Yixing (537).
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command issued a Tuesday statementannouncing that the PLA Eastern Theater Command organized its vessel and aircraft formations, in coordination with conventional missile troops and long-range rocket launching systems, to conduct drills of air interception, assault on maritime targets, strikes on ground objects, and joint blockade and control, in waters to the north, south and east of Taiwan.
“These drills are aimed at testing the troops’ capabilities of carrying out integrated operations, seizure of operational control, and multi-directional precision strikes,” reads the statement.
“This is a serious warning and powerful containment of the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces, and is a legitimate and necessary action to defend national sovereignty and maintain national unity,” the command’s spokesperson Snr. Col Shi Yi said in a separate statement.
Unlike last year’s “Joint Sword” drills, the PLA has not released any operational name for Tuesday’s drills though following the same pattern of the Joint Sword drills, it has released graphics and videos of Monday’s drills, including a poster titled Enveloping Advance.
“The more willful provocation, Inviting greater strangulation,” reads the poster, pointing out the PLA’s ability to throttle Taiwan via a multi-domain blockade.
Similar to the Joint Sword drills, the CCG has been conducting what it terms as law enforcement patrols around Taiwan at the same time as the PLA drills, with a CCG release saying on Tuesday, Coast Guard vessel formations conducted law-enforcement patrols in waters surrounding Taiwan Island, and carried out drills such as inspection and capture, interception and detention operations against unwarranted vessels.
“Taiwan is a province of the People’s Republic of China. These drills are concrete actions to exercise legitimate jurisdiction and control over the island in accordance with the one-China principle,” CCG spokesperson Zhu Anqing said in the release. A graphic with the release showed a total of six CCG ships conducting patrols around Taiwan.
The PLA drills come about only two days after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, during his visit to Japan, said the U.S. stood together with Japan against Chinese aggression and that the U.S. was committed to deterrence in the Indo-Pacific, which also included Taiwan.
“America and Japan stand firmly together in the face of aggressive and coercive actions by the Communist Chinese. America is committed to sustaining robust, ready and credible deterrence in the Indo Pacific, including across the Taiwan Strait,” Hegseth said during a press conference.
China’s drills also come at a time when the U.S does not have a deployed CSG nearby with the Carl Vinson CSG departing the region to operate in U.S. Central Command while forward deployed carrier USS George Washington (CVN-73) remains docked in Yokosuka. The Nimitz CSG is inbound to the Western Pacific. At the time of writing, neither the Pentagon nor U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) have made any comments on the drills.
