TAIWAN STRAIT

China's Liaoning carrier group returned to Qingdao on June 22 after a 40-day deployment across the South China Sea and western Pacific, including a joint drill with an amphibious assault ship group, per USNI News, Reuters and SCMP; Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense ran an Immediate Combat Readiness Exercise in response. A sustained blue-water deployment is the capability gap that matters most for any Taiwan contingency, and Taipei is now drilling for shorter warning times.

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