Back in mid-April, Chinese forces staged one of their biggest-ever war games rehearsing a surprise invasion of Taiwan. It’s not unusual for People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) and People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) aircraft to fly into Taiwan’s air-defence identification zone – a kind of unofficial defensive area – as a show of strength, and as practice for an actual attack.
What was unusual was the presence of an aircraft carrier. For the first time ever, a Chinese flattop – the four-year-old Shandong – joined the scores of fighters and bombers probing Taiwan’s defences.
