China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier leads naval exercise off Taiwan

Latest drill comes as Taiwan’s Defence Ministry reported a new incursion by China’s air force into the island’s air defence identification zone.

A Chinese carrier group is exercising near Taiwan and such drills will become regular, China’s navy has announced, in a further escalation of tensions near the island that Beijing claims as its sovereign territory. Taiwan has complained of an increase in Chinese military activity near it in recent months, as China steps up efforts to assert its sovereignty over the democratically run island. In a statement late on Monday, China’s navy said the carrier group, lead by the Liaoning, the country’s first aircraft carrier put into active service, was carrying out “routine” drills in the waters near Taiwan.