China's most advanced aircraft carrier sails through Taiwan Strait, Taipei says

China's newest aircraft carrier, the Fujian, sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, marking its first such mission since April, amid ongoing tensions between China and Taiwan.

China's newest and most ​advanced aircraft carrier the Fujian sailed through ​the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, the ‌Taiwanese defence ​ministry said, the first such mission in the sensitive waterway since April.

Taiwan, which Beijing views as its territory, reports almost daily ‌Chinese military activity around the island in what Taipei views as an ongoing pressure campaign against the democratically elected government. In a brief statement, the ministry said the Fujian had passed through the strait.

The ‌military used "joint intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance methods to closely monitor it", the ministry added, without ‌elaborating. It also showed a black-and-white picture of the ship taken from above, though there were no aircraft visible on its deck. It did not say exactly where or how the picture was taken.

China's defence ministry did ⁠not immediately ​respond to a request ⁠for comment outside business hours. The Fujian is last known to have sailed through the strait in mid-December, though ⁠the Liaoning, the oldest of China's three carriers, transited the waterway in April. The Fujian has a flat ​flight deck and electromagnetic catapults to launch aircraft that make it a potentially far ⁠more powerful naval weapon than China's first two Russian-designed carriers.

The Fujian is able to carry significantly more, and heavier-armed, jet fighters ⁠than ​the Liaoning and Shandong carriers, which are smaller and rely on ramps to launch aircraft. China says it alone has sovereignty over the strait, a major maritime artery for cargo ⁠traffic. Taiwan and the United States say it is an international waterway.

The U.S. navy sends warships ⁠through the strait ⁠every few months, as do occasionally some U.S. allies. Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, saying only the island's people can decide their future.