The next and most powerful of China’s three aircraft carriers passed through the Taiwan Strait on 23rd June, as Taiwan started military drills on countering an attack by China over the next five days, the defence ministry said.

The Fujian carrier first sailed through the narrow body of water separating China and Taiwan in a trial run last September. In December, it then passed through the Strait as a fully-fledged military ship for the first time.

The self-governed island is part of China’s territory, and the Chinese government has threatened to use force to make it part of Beijing. China regularly sends navy vessels and war planes towards Taiwan in military exercises that have become more frequent in recent years, to the point where they now occur almost daily.

Taiwan on Monday kicked off its own five-day exercise to support its response in case of a possible Chinese military invasion.

The U.S. Navy periodically passes through the strait, as do some of its allies, as a warning to Beijing on the prospect of using force to assert its claim to the island.

The Fujian was launched in November 2025. The U.S. Naval Institute estimates that it is the world’s largest non-nuclear-powered warship, and that it is more advanced than China’s two other carriers—Shandong and Liaoning.