(Adnkronos) – Taiwan reports the first transit of the new Chinese aircraft carrier Fujian in the Taiwan Strait since it ‘entered service’. “The People’s Liberation Army Navy aircraft carrier Fujian (CV-18) passed through the Taiwan Strait yesterday,” Taipei’s Ministry of Defense announced today via X, assuring that Taiwan’s forces have “monitored” and “responded.” No other details, just a black and white image immortalizing the aircraft carrier.
Defense Minister Wellington Koo explained – as reported by the CNA agency – that his ministry believes there were no aircraft on the aircraft carrier because it was headed to Shanghai for new technical interventions on board.
In early November last year, Chinese leader Xi Jinping ‘inaugurated’ the Fujian aircraft carrier, the Dragon’s third. It entered service, according to official media of the Asian giant, on November 5 and is the first Chinese one equipped with an electromagnetic catapult system. In recent weeks, it had already traveled in the South China Sea for its latest navigation trials, after a passage through the Taiwan Strait, an island that is de facto independent but for which Beijing wants “reunification.”
