{"id":1388799,"date":"2022-03-18T11:37:35","date_gmt":"2022-03-18T15:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1388799"},"modified":"2022-03-18T16:14:47","modified_gmt":"2022-03-18T20:14:47","slug":"chinese-carrier-sails-through-taiwan-strait-hours-before-biden-xi-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/chinese-carrier-sails-through-taiwan-strait-hours-before-biden-xi-call\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Carrier Sails Through Taiwan Strait Hours Before Biden-Xi Call"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fchinese-carrier-sails-through-taiwan-strait-hours-before-biden-xi-call%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1388799&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\"><span>The Chinese aircraft carrier <\/span><i><span>Shandong <\/span><\/i><span>made a provocative passage through the Strait of Taiwan on Friday, just hours ahead of a scheduled phone call between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese dictator Xi Jinping.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense (MND) issued a brief statement acknowledging the passage of the Chinese carrier and stating Taiwan\u2019s forces have a \u201cfull grasp\u201d of Chinese activities in the Strait. This \u201cfull grasp\u201d language is standard language appearing in nearly every MND statement about Chinese air and sea activity near the island.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p><span>A source who was \u201cnot authorized to speak to the media\u201d told <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/china\/exclusive-china-sails-carrier-through-taiwan-strait-hours-before-biden-xi-call-2022-03-18\/\"><span>Reuters<\/span><\/a><span> the <\/span><i><span>Shandong <\/span><\/i><span>sailed near the Taiwanese-controlled island of Kinmen at roughly 10:30 a.m. local time, where it was \u201cphotographed by a passenger on a civilian flight.\u201d Observers said the Chinese carrier did not have any aircraft on deck.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Reuters\u2019 source said the guided-missile destroyer <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.surfpac.navy.mil\/ddg114\/\"><span>USS <\/span><i><span>Ralph Johnson<\/span><\/i><\/a> <span>shadowed the <\/span><i><span>Shandong <\/span><\/i><span>during part of its passage through the Taiwan Strait, as did Taiwanese warships.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>There was no official statement about the <\/span><i><span>Shandong<\/span><\/i><span> from the U.S. Navy or Department of Defense on the incident as of Friday morning. A Navy spokesman confirmed the USS <\/span><i><span>Ralph Johnson <\/span><\/i><span>\u201cconducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit\u201d but offered no further details.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<div id=\"attachment_17483010\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2021\/08\/new-china-at-sea-uniforms.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Crew aboard the Chinese People\u2019s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy\u2019s second aircraft carrier, the Shandong, released images of their new uniforms Thursday, with little panda bears\u00a0wearing flight helmets featuring heavily. (PLA Navy)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian downplayed the incident when Reuters asked about it during a Friday morning <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fmprc.gov.cn\/mfa_eng\/xwfw_665399\/s2510_665401\/2511_665403\/202203\/t20220318_10653105.html\"><span>press briefing<\/span><\/a><span>. Zhao mocked Reuters for even asking the question, although he did not deny the <\/span><i><span>Shandong <\/span><\/i><span>passed through the Taiwan Strait as reported.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThis doesn\u2019t fall within the purview of the foreign ministry, does it? You yourself wondered if it is a coincidence,\u201d Zhao said, referring to the reporter\u2019s question about whether the aircraft carrier\u2019s transit was meant to send a message ahead of the Biden-Xi phone call.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI\u2019m not aware of the specific situation about the <\/span><i><span>Shandong<\/span><\/i><span> aircraft carrier you just mentioned. But I\u2019m sure the aircraft carrier has routine training arrangements. One shouldn\u2019t link this with the communication between the Chinese and U.S. heads of state,\u201d Zhao said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cPerhaps you are being sensitive, not the Taiwan Strait,\u201d he chided the reported.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The <\/span><i><span>Shandong <\/span><\/i><span>is China\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/chinapower.csis.org\/china-aircraft-carrier-type-001a\/\"><span>second aircraft carrier<\/span><\/a><span>, and the first to be constructed in China. It is a similar design to China\u2019s first carrier, the Russian-built 1980s-era <\/span><i><span>Liaoning,<\/span><\/i><span> with some significant technical enhancements, including better radar and more space to carry and launch aircraft.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span>Shandong <\/span><\/i><span>and <\/span><i><span>Liaoning <\/span><\/i><span>are much <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/how-chinas-aircraft-carriers-compare-to-us-navy-flattops-2020-10\"><span>smaller and less capable<\/span><\/a><span> than American carriers, but China\u2019s as-yet-unnamed <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/inf.news\/en\/military\/f3cf3f5ad53745e2b7d5982921a722a0.html\"><span>third carrier<\/span><\/a><span>, expected to launch sometime this year, has been touted by the People\u2019s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) as a far more powerful and modern design with electromagnetic launch catapults.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong made a provocative passage through the Strait of Taiwan on Friday, just hours ahead of a scheduled phone call between U.S. President Joe Biden and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1388799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1388799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1388799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1388799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1388799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}