The Liaoning, China's only aircraft carrier, sailing during military drills in the Pacific.
Taipei: China's sole aircraft carrier the Liaoning has arrived at a naval base on the southern Chinese province of Hainan, a senior Taiwanese military officer said yesterday, after drills that took it around the island China claims as its own.
China has given few details of what the Soviet-built Liaoning is up to, save that it is on routine exercise.
Taiwan has said the aircraft carrier skirted waters outside its air defence identification zone to its east and south and then headed across the top of the South China Sea to Hainan, home to a large Chinese naval base.
"The Liaoning aircraft carrier has reached the Hainan military base. We will continue to monitor its developments," a senior Taiwanese military official said.
China has been testing the aircraft carrier's systems and coordination with other military equipment, the officer said, and its arrival in Hainan did not mean its mission was over.
The drill, which included accompanying warships, comes amid renewed tension over Taiwan, which China claims as its own and says is ineligible for state-to-state relations, following US President-elect Donald Trump's telephone call with the island's president that upset Beijing.
