Taiwan says Chinese aircraft carrier sailed through Taiwan Strait

TAIPEI, Dec 17 (Reuters) – China’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, the Fujian, sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, Taiwan’s defence ministry said, its first transit of the sensitive waterway since formally entering service last month.

Taiwan, which Beijing views as its territory, reports almost daily Chinese military activity around the island in what Taipei views as an ongoing pressure campaign against the democratically elected government.

In a statement on Wednesday, Taiwan’s defence ministry said the Fujian had transited the strait the previous day and that Taiwan’s forces had monitored it.

The ministry showed a grainy, black-and-white picture of the carrier with no aircraft on its deck. It did not say where the picture was taken and offered no other details.

China’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

China says it alone has sovereignty over the strait, a major maritime artery for freight traffic. Taiwan and the United States say it is an international waterway.

In September, the carrier sailed through the Taiwan Strait and into the disputed South China Sea during trials.

The Fujian is China’s third aircraft carrier, with a flat flight deck and electromagnetic catapults for take-offs that make it a potentially far more powerful naval weapon than China’s first two Russian-designed carriers.

The Fujian will be able to carry significantly more and heavier armed jet fighters than the Liaoning and Shandong carriers, which are smaller and rely on ramps to launch aircraft.

With a flat deck and electromagnetic catapults to launch aircraft, the Fujian is expected to host a larger and wider range of planes than the other two carriers – including early-warning aircraft and, eventually, China’s first carrier-capable stealth jet fighters.

China’s President Xi Jinping attended its commissioning and flag presenting ceremony in the southern island province of Hainan last month and boarded the vessel for an inspection tour.

Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only the island’s people can decide their future.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)