China sends warning to US with aircraft carrier to patrol South China Sea

Beijing sends sharp warning to the US over Taiwan as it prepares to launch an aircraft carrier to patrol the South China Sea.

Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning arrives in Hong Kong. Picture: AFP.

Beijing has said that its new aircraft carrier will “thwart” attempts by foreign forces to seize disputed territories in the South China Sea.

It issued the warning as it objected to the United States signing a deal that will allow American ships to be deployed to Taiwan.

US President Donald Trump this week signed a national defence authorisation act, which allows the US and Taiwan to deploy ships in each other’s waters.

In response Li Kexin, from the Chinese embassy in Washington, said that if the US sent ships into the port of Kaohsiung, Taiwan’s second biggest city, China would attack the island.

Beijing wants Taiwan, which has been effectively independent since 1950, to be reunited with mainland China. Beijing has continued to claim sovereignty over the island since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. Taiwan is a democratic, self-governing nation with its own army and president, Tsai Ing-wen.

Mr Li said: “The day that a US navy vessel arrives in Kaohsiung is the day that our People’s Liberation Army unifies Taiwan with military force.”

People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s newspaper, said that China’s first domestically built aircraft carrier would begin trials soon. It said that the unnamed ship, the second aircraft carrier in China’s fleet, was a “symbol of state power” that would “thwart the containment and blockade policies of some powers”.

China engaged in a show of force after the newspaper editorial was published. Bombers armed with cruise missiles performed “island encirclement patrols” around Taiwan.

Under a 45-year-old policy of constructive ambiguity, the US complies with China’s insistence that Taiwan not be treated as a separate country while also offering the island military support. However, Mr Trump’s signing of the navy authorisation document is seen by the Chinese as another step towards Taiwan announcing independence, which it views as a “red line” issue.

Lu Kang, China’s foreign ministry spokesman, said of the new US-Taiwan agreement: “We have already lodged stern representations with the US government.”

Alex Huang, a presidential spokesman for Taiwan, said it sought to maintain peace in the Taiwan Strait, which separates the island from the mainland.

“Such a raised military posture that may impact upon and harm regional peace and stability and cross-strait ties does not give a feeling of responsibility, and the international community does not look favourably upon this,” he said.

The Times