Taipei: Taiwan's military reported on Monday that it closely observed the passage of China's aircraft carrier Liaoning through the Taiwan Strait earlier in the day. The Ministry of National Defense (MND) provided a brief statement accompanied by a surveillance photograph showing an aerial view of the Liaoning. The black-and-white image depicted several fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters positioned on the carrier's flight deck. However, the MND did not reveal the specifics regarding the location or timing of the photograph, nor the technology used to capture it.

According to Focus Taiwan, the Liaoning, approximately 300 meters in length, was originally the unfinished Soviet carrier Varyag before being refurbished and commissioned as China's first aircraft carrier in 2012. In a separate announcement, the MND disclosed that between 6 a.m. Sunday and 6 a.m. Monday, it detected five Chinese aircraft and 12 vessels operating in the vicinity of Taiwan. Notably, four of these aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered the southwestern section of Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ).

An ADIZ is a self-declared region where a nation seeks to identify, locate, and manage approaching foreign aircraft, although it does not equate to territorial airspace under international law.