Taiwan flags threat from 53 Chinese vessels

China has 53 navy and other official vessels operating in a sweep of sea from southern Japan to the Philippines, including the aircraft carrier Liaoning east of the Philippines, Taiwan's National Security Council secretary-general Joseph Wu said, calling the simultaneous threat to Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines obvious.

Why it matters: Taipei published a map of the deployment, which puts Chinese naval formations off Taiwan's east coast, near southern Japan and east of the Philippines at the same time, and Beijing's description of the carrier's work as routine annual training leaves the two governments characterising the same sweep in opposite terms.

Data as of Reuters report of October 29, 2026, read in full in this run via gCaptain. Statements are attributed to the officials who made them: Joseph Wu and Wellington Koo for Taiwan, Zhang Xiaogang for China's defence ministry. Developing item.

Joseph Wu, secretary-general of Taiwan’s National Security Council, posted a map on Wednesday showing 53 Chinese ships, 34 of them navy warships, with the Liaoning carrier group positioned east of the Philippines, other formations off Taiwan’s east and southeast coasts and three vessels off the southern coast of Japan, Reuters reported. Japan’s Defence Ministry said it had tracked three Chinese warships and a coast guard ship a day earlier as they passed through the Osumi Strait off Kyushu and into the Pacific.

China’s defence ministry spokesman Zhang Xiaogang said on Thursday that the Liaoning’s training in the western Pacific was an annual routine to test long-range, open-ocean combat capability and was not directed at any particular country. Taiwan’s defence minister, Wellington Koo, told reporters at parliament in Taipei that Taiwan was building its own deterrence capabilities and that China had never abandoned the use of force to annex Taiwan.

Taiwan flags threat from 53 Chinese vessels

Sources