China sends carrier group off Taiwan

Taiwan’s defence ministry said on Wednesday a Chinese aircraft carrier group was in the waters off the island’s southeast coast, the same day President Tsai Ing-wen was due to meet U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles.
China, which claims democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory, has warned of unspecified retaliation if the meeting goes ahead.
China staged war games around Taiwan last August following the visit to Taipei of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said the Chinese ships, which were led by the carrier the Shandong, passed through the Bashi Channel which separates Taiwan from the Philippines and then into waters to Taiwan’s southeast.
It said the ships were going for training in the Western Pacific, and that Taiwanese naval and air forces and land-based radar systems closely monitored them.