The Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning, seen here in the Western Pacific in April 2018, transited the Taiwan Strait on April 20, 2026. (China Military Online)
The aircraft carrier Liaoning sailed through the Taiwan Strait this week, the first Chinese carrier transit reported by Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense since the Fujian made a similar trip in December.
The ministry announced the passage Monday alongside an image of the Liaoning in a brief statement on X. Taiwan’s military “monitored the situation and responded,” the message said.
The Liaoning’s trip through the 110-mile-wide waterway that separates mainland China and Taiwan came days after the Japanese guided-missile destroyer JS Ikazuchi made its own trip through the strait. That passage was the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s fourth trip through the waterway since June, according to Japan News.
The Ikazuchi made the trip on April 17, the anniversary of the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki, in which Japan forced China to cede possession of Taiwan and make Korea independent, a “historically freighted date for China,” according to a Sunday commentary in the South China Morning Post.
A Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force spokesman declined to comment on the transit over the phone Monday, citing operational security concerns. Some Japanese officials may speak to the media only on condition of anonymity.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun called the move a “dangerous plot of some in Japan to militarily intervene in the Taiwan Strait and undermine peace and stability there,” according to a transcript of a Friday news conference.
The Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning, seen here in an image captured by Taiwanese surveillance, transited the Taiwan Strait on April 20, 2026. (Taiwan Ministry of National Defense)
Beijing considers democratic Taiwan a breakaway province that must be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary. China also claims sovereignty over the Taiwan Strait as a whole.
The United States routinely sends warships, and less frequently, aircraft through the channel, which the Navy typically describes as routine transits between the East China Sea and South China Sea. U.S. allies also occasionally send warships and aircraft through the strait.
China typically condemns such actions as provocative.
The last Chinese aircraft carrier to transit the Taiwan Strait was the country’s newest carrier, the Fujian, on Dec. 16, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense.
Taiwan also tracks and reports near-continuous activity by Chinese aircraft and warships, many of which routinely cross the strait’s unofficial median line and into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone.
Between 6 a.m. Monday and 6 a.m. Tuesday, Taiwan reported 24 aircraft sorties, seven warships and one other ship active in the strait. Eleven crossed the median line.
Beijing on Friday defended its activities in the Taiwan Strait, which also includes large-scale activities that sometimes encircle Taiwan.
Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Zhang Xiaogang told reporters Friday that activities in the strait are meant to “safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity” and are “completely legitimate, reasonable, and entirely justified,” the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported that day.
