File image of the Royal Australian Navy vessel, HMAS Toowoomba.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Taiwan said it detected 24 Chinese military aircraft near the island on Sunday as a Canadian warship passed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait.

It was the first Canadian naval vessel to transit the waterway this year, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said, and came days after two U.S. ships made the passage.

The United States and its allies regularly pass through the 180-km Taiwan Strait to reinforce its status as an international waterway, angering China.

Beijing has never ruled Taiwan, but it claims the democratic island as part of its territory and has threatened to bring it under its control by force.

“The Royal Canadian Navy’s Halifax-class frigate HMCS Ottawa sailed through the Taiwan Strait on February 16,” Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“Canada has once again taken concrete action to uphold the Taiwan Strait’s freedom, peace and openness, demonstrating its firm stance that the strait is international waters,” it added.

Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said on Sunday that 24 Chinese aircraft, including fighter jets and drones, were detected carrying “joint combat readiness patrols” with military vessels around the island.

During the Canadian warship’s passage, China’s military radioed the ship and warned it to change course, Taiwanese media reported.

A US destroyer and an ocean survey ship travelled through the strait starting on February 10, drawing criticism from China’s military, which said it sent the “wrong signal and increased security risks”.

Data published by the Taiwan defence ministry showed 62 Chinese military aircraft were detected near the island in the 48 hours to 6:00 am local time on Wednesday, coinciding with the US ships’ transit.

Washington’s latest passage through the Taiwan Strait was the first time since US President Donald Trump took office in January.

It came after Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said they “opposed any attempts to unilaterally change the status quo (in the Taiwan Strait) by force or coercion”.

Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te (C) and Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (R) wave alongside outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen (L) during the inauguration ceremony at the Presidential Office Building in Taipei on May 20, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Lai Ching-te took office as Taiwan’s new President on May 20, facing an angry and deeply suspicious China that believes he is a “separatist”, and a fractious parliament with an Opposition champing at the bit to challenge him.

Mr. Lai was sworn in at the Japanese-colonial-era presidential office in central Taipei, taking over from Tsai Ing-wen, having served as her Vice President for the past four years.

Mr. Lai will express goodwill towards China in his inauguration speech on May 20 morning, and call for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to pursue peace, according to a senior official briefed on the matter.

Beijing views proudly democratic Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. Mr. Lai has offered talks, which have been rebuffed, and has been said that only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.

Taiwan has faced ongoing pressure from China, including regular air force and navy activities close to the island, since January’s election victory by Mr. Lai, who is 64 and widely known by his English name, William.

In attendance at the ceremony are former U.S. officials dispatched by President Joe Biden, lawmakers from countries including Japan, Germany and Canada, and leaders from some of the 12 countries that still maintain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, such as Paraguay President Santiago Pena.

Last week, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said Mr. Lai, who it called the “Taiwan region’s new leader” had to make a clear choice between peaceful development or confrontation.

His domestic challenges loom large too, given his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lost its parliamentary majority in the January election.

On May 17, lawmakers punched, shoved and screamed at each other in a bitter dispute over parliamentary reforms the opposition was pushing. There could be more fighting on May 21 when lawmakers resume their discussions.

China’s third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, the most advanced homemade warship, began its maiden sea trials on May 1 as Beijing ramped up its naval power amid increasing tensions with the U.S. in the disputed South China Sea and Taiwan Strait.

The ship left Shanghai Jiangnan Shipyard on May 1 morning for the sea trials, primarily to test the reliability and stability of the aircraft carrier’s propulsion and electrical systems, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Since its launch in June 2022, the Fujian has completed its mooring trials, outfitting work and equipment adjustments. It has met the technical requirements for sea trials.

Ahead of the trials, China has imposed maritime traffic controls around the mouth of the Yangtze River where the Jiangnan shipyard ship is located for “military activities”.

The traffic controls would last till May 9, the report said.

According to the previous official media reports, China plans to have five to six aircraft carriers by 2035 for strategic deployment in the disputed South China Sea, where Beijing seeks to assert its claims over most of the vast area, the Taiwan Strait which separates the Chinese mainland and Taiwan and the Indian Ocean where Beijing is increasing its power projection.

Currently, the Chinese navy is involved in a standoff with the US-backed Philippines naval ships in the South China Sea.

The Philippines is trying to assert its claim over the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea which is strongly resisted by China.

China claims most of the South China Sea. The Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counterclaims.

China names its aircraft carriers after its provinces. Fujian borders the Taiwan Strait. The other two carriers were named after Liaoning and the Shandong provinces.

China’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, was a refit of the Soviet-era ship commissioned in 2012 followed by the indigenously built 2nd aircraft carrier Shandong in 2019.

Chinese official media said Fujian is the “first fully domestically developed and constructed” aircraft carrier with an electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) similar to that of the American aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford.

Fujian has a full displacement of more than 80,000 tonnes, about 20,000 tonnes more than the other two aircraft carriers.

China’s other two aircraft carriers are equipped with ski-jump take-off ramps while the Fujian features a flat-top flight deck.

China operates its indigenously built J-15 aircraft for its carriers.

In a major rejig of its military doctrine, China in 2013 stepped up the development of the navy with a massive budget while cutting down the number of army troops as part of its power projection far from its shores.

The modernisation included building several aircraft carriers besides submarines, frigates and assault ships as part of its efforts to expand its global influence.

According to an estimate, China is building almost a naval ship a month. It is helping Pakistan to modernise its navy by providing its latest naval frigates and submarines.

Chairman of Taiwan People’s Communist Party Lin Te-wang (centre) seen during a protest. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Prosecutors in Taiwan have indicted two leaders of the island’s tiny Taiwan People’s Communist Party on accusations they colluded with China in an effort to influence next year’s elections for President and members of the legislative assembly.

Party chairman Lin Te-wang and vice-chairman Chen Chien-hsin were accused on October 3 of violating the Anti-Infiltration Act and the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act after having accepted funds and other benefits from China’s ruling Communist Party, the official Central News Agency said. It wasn’t clear whether the two men were in Taiwan when the indictments were issued.

Taiwan will elect a new President and legislators in January, and Beijing is suspected of seeking to boost the chances of politicians favouring political unification between the sides through social media and the free press and by bankrolling candidates it favours. Current Vice-President William Lai, whose Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) strongly backs maintaining Taiwan’s current status of de-facto independence from China, is leading in most polls.

A one-time ranking member of the pro-unification opposition Nationalist Party, Lin founded the Taiwan People’s Communist Party in 2017 and has maintained close ties with China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, a Cabinet-level agency dedicated to pursuing China’s unification agenda.

“Lin failed twice in bids for local government council seats and staged protests against a visit by then-speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi last year, all allegedly funded by China,” CNA reported. “He also allegedly worked as an advisor to the local Taiwan Affairs Office in China’s Shandong province,” CNA said.

No word of the indictments appeared on the party’s Facebook page and calls to its listed phone number in the southern city of Taiwan said it had been disconnected.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office condemned the indictments on Tuesday, accusing the ruling DPP of “making unjustified moves against those who advocate peaceful reunification across the Taiwan Strait,” and saying the actions were “made with malicious intentions,” China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported.

In their pursuit of Taiwan’s formal independence, the DPP and unidentified “separatist forces” have abused the law to suppress those advocating unification with China, office spokesperson Zhu Fenglian said.

“Such despicable acts will surely be strongly condemned and resolutely opposed by people on both sides of the Strait,” Zhu was quoted as saying.

Despite close cultural and economic ties between the two sides, surveys show the vast majority of Taiwanese oppose accepting rule under China’s authoritarian one-party system, which crushes all opposition and any form of criticism while maintaining an aggressive foreign policy toward the United States and other key Taiwanese allies.