According to the news released by the US Pacific Fleet on August 13th, the USS Reagan aircraft carrier, which had previously wandered in the East China Sea, had sailed to the Philippine Sea.
China’s Global Times Network regards this as a “quite slipping-away” on the occasion of China’s latest military exercises near Taiwan. It is reported that the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier has been frequently active in the East China Sea recently. “South China Sea Strategic Situational Awareness” issued a report on July 30 that on July 28, satellites discovered the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier sailing south in the East China Sea northwest of the Amami Islands. On August 1, USS Ronald Reagan carrier was temporarily suspended at Yokosuka Port in Japan, but on August 2 it left the port to perform its mission and then entered the East China Sea again.
According to the news released by the “South China Sea Strategic Situational Awareness Program” on August 13, satellite images on August 12 showed that the US Navy aircraft carrier “Ronald Reagan” was sailing south of Okinawa and was about to enter the East China Sea. The US Pacific Fleet also released news on August 12 that the “Ronald Reagan” aircraft carrier carried out relevant flight training activities for carrier-based aircraft in the East China Sea on August 11. A detail worth noting is that at the time when the US Secretary of Health was “visiting Taiwan,” the aircraft carrier “Ronald Reagan” had been cruising around Taiwan, which was thought to be intended to deter mainland China.
On August 13th, the Eastern Theater of China announced military exercises. It was reported that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command deployed multiple services and multiple directions in a system to organize actual combat drills in the Taiwan Strait and from the north and south ends of Taiwan Island to further test and improve “multi-service combat capability”. Although the PLA’s eastern theater of exercises did not specify a specific time for the exercises, the China Maritime Safety Administration previously issued a navigational notice stating that from August 11th to 13th, live ammunition was fired in the Huangdayang waters of Zhoushan. Analysis believes that this is an important part of China’s military exercises around Taiwan.
On the same day on August 13, the US Pacific Fleet issued a message indicating that the USS Ronald Reagan had left the East China Sea and sailed to the Philippine Sea. Regarding the sailing activities of the “Ronald Reagan”, the U.S. Pacific Fleet did not make too many announcements. It just claimed that “the aircraft carrier provides a combat force ready to fight to protect and defend the US allies and their partners in India-Pacific region”.