Chinese carrier transits Taiwan Strait for first time since December

April 21, 2026

Summary

Taiwan said China’s Liaoning crossed the Taiwan Strait, the first reported Chinese carrier transit there since December.

Why this matters

Carrier transits through the Taiwan Strait are closely watched as indicators of military activity and tensions involving China, Taiwan, Japan, and the United States. The passage came days after a Japanese destroyer used the same waterway, adding to regional scrutiny.

China’s aircraft carrier Liaoning sailed through the Taiwan Strait this week, the first Chinese carrier transit there reported by Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense since the Fujian made a similar trip in December.

Taiwan’s ministry announced the passage Monday in a brief statement on X, with an image of the Liaoning. Taiwan’s military “monitored the situation and responded,” it said.

The transit through the 110-mile-wide waterway between China and Taiwan came days after the Japanese guided-missile destroyer JS Ikazuchi passed through the strait. That was the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s fourth transit since June, according to Japan News.

The Ikazuchi made the trip on April 17, the anniversary of the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki, under which Japan forced China to cede Taiwan and recognize Korea’s independence, a date the South China Morning Post described in a Sunday commentary as “historically freighted” for China.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun called Japan’s 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.

Beijing considers self-governed Taiwan a breakaway province that must be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary. China also claims sovereignty over the Taiwan Strait.

The United States routinely sends warships, and less frequently aircraft, through the strait, 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 waterway.

The previous Chinese carrier transit was by the Fujian on Dec. 16, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense.

Taiwan also reports near-daily activity by Chinese aircraft and warships, including crossings of the strait’s unofficial median line and entries 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 in the area. Eleven aircraft crossed the median line.

On Friday, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Zhang Xiaogang said the activity was intended to “safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity” and was “completely legitimate, reasonable, and entirely justified,” according to state-run Xinhua News Agency.

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