Taiwanese authorities have reduced Chinese military activity

Ataiwanese authorities announced a decrease in the number of Chinese military ships near the island, but warned that China maintains the Liaoning aircraft carrier and naval formations of three commandos in the Philippine Sea.

In a message published on social network X on Thursday, the Secretary-General of the Taiwan National Security Council, Joseph Wu, announced that the Chinese military presence in the “first chain of islands” had decreased.

The first chain of islands is a line of archipelagos extending from Japan to the Philippines, passing through Taiwan, and which the United States and other allies consider essential to contain China's military projection towards the Pacific.

A map released by Wu, dated Thursday, shows about 55 positions of warships, Coast Guard vessels and other Chinese maritime agencies, distributed between the East China Sea and the South China Sea.

The largest concentration (18) is in the Philippine Sea, followed by the East China Sea (14) and the Taiwan Strait and the southwest region of the island (nine).

Hours earlier, Taiwan had denounced about three dozen Chinese military aircraft in the vicinity of the island, less than a week from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC).

The summit will take place in the Chinese city of Shenzhen on November 18th and 19th and the participation of American President Donald Trump, among other leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, is expected.

Tuesday, Taiwan’s Defense Minister Wellington Koo warned that China is conducting “area denial exercises” in the Western Pacific, in which the Liaoning aircraft carrier’s combat group and naval formations of three of the five Chinese Army theater commands participate.

This type of exercise – not officially announced by Beijing – integrates the strategy of anti-access and denial of area, which aims to prevent or hinder the entry or operation of external forces in a given area.

The Beijing authorities consider Taiwan “inalienable part” of Chinese territory and do not exclude the use of force to take control of the island, a position rejected by the Taiwanese Government, which argues that only the 23 million inhabitants of the island have the right to decide their political future.

Also on Thursday, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Taiwan predicted that “there will be no major changes” during the APEC summit next week, which could include a meeting between the Presidents of China and the United States and talks on the status of the island.

In a statement in Parliament, quoted by the Taiwanese news agency CNA, Chen Ming-chi recalled that at the last two meetings between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping held in May and September in Beijing and Washington, respectively, the two parties “did not define any concrete direction”.