China’s military has sent its Liaoning aircraft carrier and seven escort ships for training through the Miyako Strait — a key gateway into the Western Pacific Ocean that is closely monitored by Japan — according to the Defense Ministry in Tokyo.
The Chinese ships’ passage near Okinawa Prefecture and exercises in the Pacific are likely intended to check military activities in the area by the U.S., Japan and others, especially as the allies become increasingly vocal over the fate of self-ruled Taiwan.
The ministry said late Monday that the flotilla of warships had passed through the waterway that separates Okinawa’s main island from Miyako Island earlier in the day, and that six of the eight ships had first been detected about 350 kilometers southwest of Nagasaki Prefecture’s Danjo Islands on Sunday.
Four guided-missile destroyers, including the Chinese Navy’s state-of-the-art Type 055 vessel, were initially among the flotilla, as well as a Type 901 fast combat support ship.
The six warships were later joined by another guided-missile destroyer and a frigate. They were tracked by the Maritime Self-Defense Forces’ Izumo, a de facto aircraft carrier, as they sailed southward through the strait into the Pacific on Sunday.
According to the ministry, surveillance aircraft and the Izumo — which along with its sister ship, the Kaga, is the MSDF’s largest vessel — monitored the Liaoning-led flotilla, which had earlier conducted flight operations involving helicopters in the East China Sea.
The Chinese vessels and aircraft did not enter Japanese territorial waters or airspace, though at least one warship did come within 160 kilometers of Taisho Island in the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands, which are also claimed by China, where they are known as the Diaoyu.
The Liaoning had not been seen in the area since December, when the carrier led another flotilla on a round-trip voyage through the Miyako Strait for similar training involving ship-based helicopters, fighter jets and other warships.
In April last year, another Liaoning-led flotilla passed through the Miyako Strait and then conducted military exercises near democratic Taiwan, which Beijing has vowed to make “routine."
It is unclear if the latest exercises will also see the vessels sail near Taiwan.
China sees Taiwan as an inherent part of its territory and a renegade province that must be brought back into the fold — by force if necessary. Its military has conducted scores of sorties into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, which differs from sovereign airspace. Confusion over what the moves are intended to signal has unleashed a flood of concern in both Washington and Tokyo, and raised the specter of military miscalculation.
Both Japan and the United States both view Taiwan as a crucial — albeit informal — partner in combating Beijing’s attempts to change the status quo in the region via coercion.
With Sino-U.S. rivalry pushing the two powers’ relationship to its lowest point in decades, the moves have been especially concerning, triggering fears of a new Cold War that would envelop all four capitals.
The Liaoning, a refurbished Soviet vessel, is one of China’s two active carriers. The other is the Shandong, the country’s first domestically produced carrier.
An analysis last November said China was three to six months from launching its third and most modern aircraft carrier, in what would be a key milestone in President Xi Jinping’s effort to project even more power in the high seas. However, the timing of that launching could depend on the COVID-19 pandemic and political considerations — China’s ruling Communist Party is due to hold a key conclave this autumn, where Xi is expected to secure a third term in office.
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