China sends aircraft carriers Liaoning for exercises in the Western Pacific

A Chinese Navy announced today the deployment of a combat group led by Liaoning aircraft carrier to the Western Pacific, where it will carry out military exercises to strengthen the preparation of its units under real combat conditions.

In a statement released on social networks, the Navy of the People’s Liberation Army (ELP, Chinese Armed Forces) indicated that maneuvers are part of the annual military training plan and aim to improve the operational capacity of the units in “real combat conditions”.

The military body ensured that the exercises respect international law and “are not directed against any country or specific target”.

The notice does not specify the composition of the combat group, the waters of the western Pacific where the maneuvers will take place, their duration or the intended activities.

Liaoning, the oldest of China's three operational carriers, was already deployed to the same region in May, when the Navy announced exercises that included high-sea tactical flights, real fire drills and search and rescue operations.

A year earlier, in June 2025, Liaoning and aircraft carrier Shandong carried out a simultaneous deployment of more than a month in the western Pacific during which they conducted combat exercises and joint operations with other military units.

These maneuvers raised concern in Japan and Taiwan, whose defense minister Wellington Koo then denounced the “expansionist” character of Chinese naval operations beyond the first chain of islands.

This strategic line of archipelagos extends across the western Pacific and includes Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines.

The Taiwan National Defense Ministry announced today that it has detected 13 Chinese military aircraft in the vicinity of the island, including fighters J-16, J-11 and Su-30, since 9:30 locals (02:30 in Lisbon).

According to the Taiwanese authorities, 11 of the devices crossed the midline of the Taiwan Strait and entered the northern, central and southwest sectors of the Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) declared by Taipei.

The aircraft carried out a “joint combat preparedness patrol” with Chinese Navy ships, the third such operation in just over a week.

The midline of the strait, which separates Taiwan from mainland China, has operated for decades as an informal border between military forces on both sides, although Beijing has never officially recognized its existence.

China considers Taiwan an “inalienable part” of its territory and does not exclude the use of force to achieve the “reunification”, a position rejected by the Taipei Government, which argues that only the 23 million inhabitants of the island can decide their political future.