China issues warning of dangerous area in waters near Taiwan

As Chinese military aircraft and ships continue their daily operations around Taiwan, China on Tuesday issued a no-sail zone warning in waters near the self-ruled island, Beijing's latest show of force amid tensions across the Taiwan Strait.

The Maritime Safety Administration of east China's Zhejiang Province has issued a shipping warning about “military exercises” in the East China Sea from Wednesday to Friday.

NewsweekTaiwan's map shows the boundaries of the declared danger zone in waters east of Zhejiang and south of Shanghai. However, large parts of the area lie within Taiwan's air defense identification zone, or ADIZ, and about 11 miles from the centerline of the Taiwan Strait.

Chinese leaders claim the island as part of their territory, despite repeated refusals from Taipei. Beijing has used a mix of military, economic and psychological pressure against the island to further its goal of eventual unification.

An ADIZ is a self-declared airspace over land or water, in which the identification, location, and control of aircraft is necessary in the interest of national security. But these areas, also used by China, South Korea, Japan, and the Philippines, are not territorial airspace and are not governed by international law.

The Chinese military deployed 22 aircraft and six ships around Taiwan in the 24 hours through 6 a.m. Wednesday, according to the Defense Ministry in Taipei.

On X (formerly Twitter), a Chinese military observer noted that the no-go zone, while large, had been declared for a short time.

“A bold guess would be that this is likely to be the first catapult launch test” of China's third aircraft carrier Fujian, according to user @foolsball, who added that the area looked like a “big finger pointing” at the Taiwan Strait.

On Monday, a separate navigation warning issued by the Shanghai Maritime Safety Authority suggested that FujianChina's third and most advanced aircraft carrier was due to conduct another sea trial in the East China Sea two days later, near the entrance to the Yangtze River.

THE Fujian The aircraft carrier conducted its first sea trial on May 1. The flat-topped warship is China's first aircraft carrier capable of catapult-assisted takeoff, while its other two carriers, both Soviet-designed, launch aircraft using ski-jump ramps.

Satellite images showed the Fujian had returned to an equipment dock on Tuesday. @foolsball speculated that it might be unloading model aircraft ahead of sea trials.

Newsweek could not independently verify the authenticity of the image.

China's Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lu Li-Shih, a former instructor at the Taiwan Naval Academy, said in a Facebook post that the upcoming sea trial would help the Fujian improve the shortcomings identified during its previous test.

He also expected the carrier to conduct so-called “touch-and-go” landings with aircraft for this series of tests, while the actual landing on the flight deck would wait for the next test.

Taiwan's armed forces will conduct live-fire drills from July 22 to 26 as part of the 40th annual Han Kuang military exercises. Lessons learned from the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Hamas war will be incorporated into the live-fire drills, according to Taiwanese Major General Tung Chi-Hsing.

In response, Beijing has called the Han Kuang exercise a “spectacle” in which Taiwan independence supporters are doomed to defeat. “The outcome cannot be changed,” China's Defense Ministry said at its monthly news conference in late June.