The picture shows aircraft carrier Shandong berths at a naval port in Sanya. China's first domestically-made aircraft carrier Shandong (Hull 17) was officially commissioned to the PLA Navy at a military port in Sanya, South China's Hainan Province, on the afternoon of December 17, 2019, making China one of the few countries in the world that have multiple carriers. Photo:China Military

 
The aircraft carrier Shandong of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy reportedly sailed through the Taiwan Straits on Tuesday, the same day a US destroyer also made a transit in the region, with experts saying on Wednesday that the US warship's provocative move, which came right after its consecutive trespasses in Xisha and Nansha islands in the South China Sea last week, is a desperate and cost-saving attempt to hype tensions and contain China as the US faces China's growing capabilities, while the Chinese carrier was just returning to base after a regular maintenance.

The PLA Eastern Theater Command organized naval and air forces to track and monitor the USS Benfold destroyer through its entire course when it sailed through the Taiwan Straits on Tuesday, Senior Colonel Shi Yi, a spokesperson at the PLA Eastern Theater Command, said in a statement on Wednesday.

Frequent provocations and shows by the US clearly demonstrated that the US is the destroyer of peace and stability and risk creator in the Taiwan Straits, Shi said. He noted that the troops of the PLA Eastern Theater Command will always stay on high alert and firmly safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity. 

It is the third provocative maritime activity by the USS Benfold near China in just one week. On July 13, the US vessel was driven away by the PLA Southern Theater Command from Chinese territorial waters off the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea, then on Saturday, it claimed to have sailed near the Nansha Islands, also in the South China Sea.

It is rare that a US warship would consecutively sail into waters off the Xisha Islands, Nansha Islands and then through the Taiwan Straits, this is a new kind of provocation, Zhang Xuefeng, a Chinese military expert, told the Global Times on Wednesday. 

Similar actions - namely a US warship departed from the base in Yokosuka, Japan, traversing more than one maritime region around China to show muscle - will probably become routine as the US is enhancing provocation against China, Zhang said.

Operations like this could lower the cost in provoking China, Zhang said.

Such provocations indicate the US thinks it's normal to use the Taiwan island to contain China, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Wednesday. 

Frequent navigation operations of a US warship in major waters of and around China in such a short period, especially in the Taiwan Straits aim to provoke China's sovereignty, and they showed that the US now is a cornered beast that has become desperate, Song said. 

On the same day the USS Benfold transited the Taiwan Straits, the aircraft carrier Shandong of the PLA Navy was spotted also sailing through the Taiwan Straits, followed by what seemed to be a supply ship, media on the island of Taiwan reported on Wednesday.

Previous reports show that the Shandong just wrapped up its scheduled maintenance in Dalian Shipyard in Northeast China's Liaoning Province in early July. The carrier was likely returning to its homeport in Sanya, South China's Hainan Province, and sailing through the Taiwan Straits is the shortest route, a Beijing-based military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times.

Also on Tuesday, media reported that US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to visit Taiwan in August after an aborted April visit to Asia which possibly included the island of Taiwan after she tested positive for COVID-19. Analysts said that if she intends to make a blatant provocation against China, she would spark a much more dangerous incident than the Taiwan Straits Crisis in 1996, and it would cause a huge setback for China-US ties.

Facing China's growing military capabilities, the US military is becoming anxious and less confident in carrying out its own hegemony, and that is why the US is ramping up provocations in an attempt to prove its might, experts said. 

But the US will end up lifting a stone only to drop it on its own feet, experts said. 

In response to Pelosi's alleged visit to the Taiwan island next month, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian at a press conference on Tuesday urged the US to drop such an arrangement and noted that if the US insists on going its own way, China will take firm and forceful measures to firmly safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity. 

China is holding military exercises in a large area in the South China Sea from Sunday to Wednesday, according to a navigational notice released by the Maritime Safety Administration on Friday.