It also was not the first time the Liaoning had sailed through the strait: It passed through in November 2013 on its way to the South China Sea after having been commissioned only the year before.

In that instance, the carrier kept to the western half of the strait, closer to mainland China. In a statement on Wednesday morning, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said that the Liaoning was also staying to the west of the strait’s middle and urged citizens to remain calm. A transit on the eastern side, closer to Taiwan, would be viewed as much more provocative.

Euan Graham, the director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia, said that for the Chinese, traveling through the strait was a logical way to move from one area of fleet operations to another along its long coastline. In order for warships based in northern ports, like the Liaoning, to return home from southern waters, they must either pass close to Japanese islands or transit the Taiwan Strait. “Geography forces a very binary choice,” he said.

Mr. Graham said it was important to see how the Liaoning conducted its passage. If it had aircraft on deck and was conducting flight operations, that would be seen as more provocative than if it passed through the strait with the aircraft in its hangar bay, he said.

The Liaoning, commissioned in 2012 and built from a Soviet hull, is China’s first aircraft carrier. In past decades, the United States has shown its resolve to defend Taiwan by sailing carriers through the Taiwan Strait. In 1995, the aircraft carrier Nimitz transited the strait amid heightened tensions after Beijing conducted missile exercises in the waters.

China’s military decision-making is highly secretive, but it would seem inconceivable for the Liaoning to pass through such contested waters without approval from the president, Xi Jinping, who is also the chairman of the Central Military Commission, which controls the military. And the Chinese military media has described the aircraft carrier as embodying Mr. Xi’s plans for a stronger navy, capable of projecting force far beyond China’s territorial waters.

Last Thursday, the front page of People’s Liberation Army Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese military, featured a report about the aircraft carrier’s latest journey under the headline, “We’re sailing under the leader’s attentive gaze,” a clear tribute to Mr. Xi.