Xi Jinping doesn’t much care about international law, which has been largely torn up by Vladimir Putin. From the Chinese point of view those came to a head last week with a transit of the Taiwan Strait by a US destroyer and a Canadian frigate, exercising their right of free navigation on the high seas under international law. It’s a piece of sabre-rattling intended as a response to several recent US-led manoeuvres with other nations in the region. In fact China would probably see this an operation not an exercise, though probably not a full blown combat op – not this time, anyway. It’s the largest carrier group exercise by China seen to date – if it is an exercise. Altogether the Taiwanese government counted 20 Chinese warships in the waters around it on Tuesday, and many of these are moving to join up with the Shandong group as this article is written. Eight more People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warships sortied past Taiwan to the north, via the Miyako Strait. On Monday, the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong and her escorts exited the South China Sea south of Taiwan out into the Western Pacific.
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