Taiwan monitors surge in Chinese military activity as Beijing's carrier exercises in Pacific

TAIPEI - Taiwan defence ministry said on Thursday (July 11) it was closely watching Chinese military movements after a surge in warplanes joined drills with China's Shandong aircraft carrier in the Pacific.

The Chinese military exercises coincide with a Nato summit in Washington where a draft communique says China has become a decisive enabler of Russia's war effort in Ukraine and Beijing continues to pose systemic challenges to Europe and to security.

The Chinese carrier the Shandong passed close to the Philippines on its way to the Pacific exercises, Taiwan's defence minister said on Wednesday.

In its daily update on Chinese military activity over the past 24 and released on Thursday morning, Taiwan's defence ministry said it had detected 66 Chinese military aircraft operating around the island.

Of those, 39 passed to the south and southeast of Taiwan, the ministry said, having previously said it had detected 36 aircraft heading to the Western Pacific to carry out drills with the Chinese aircraft carrier the Shandong.

Taiwan's defence ministry released two pictures, a grainy black and white one of a Chinese J-16 fighter and a colour one of a nuclear-capable H-6 bomber, which it said were taken recently, but did not say exactly where or when.

"The military has a detailed grasp of the activities in the seas and waters around the Taiwan Strait, including of the Chinese communists aircraft and ships," ministry spokesperson Sun Li-fang said in a statement, adding that included those aircraft and ships carrying out drills with the Shandong.

Taiwan's forces had tracked the two Chinese warplanes photographed, he said.

China's defence ministry has not responded to requests for comment on the Shandong's activities.

Taiwan, which