TOKYO – China’s navy conducted training flights in the Pacific Ocean on Saturday from its aircraft carrier Liaoning after the ship passed through waters off Japan’s southernmost prefecture of Okinawa, prompting the Self-Defense Forces to scramble some aircraft, the Defense Ministry said.
The latest takeoff and landing drills involving Chinese fighters and helicopters marked the first to be confirmed in waters around Japan since China commissioned its third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, last month. They come amid heightened diplomatic tensions between the Asian neighbors.
China is thought to be testing and boosting its operational capability in waters far from the mainland, and its increasing maritime assertiveness has alarmed Japan and other countries in the Indo-Pacific region.
The Japanese Defense Ministry spotted the Liaoning sailing in the East China Sea on Friday, around 420 kilometers north of Kuba Island, an islet controlled by Japan but claimed by China.
Joined by three Chinese destroyers, the aircraft carrier then headed toward the Pacific Ocean and conducted the training flights in waters some 270 km west of Okidaito Island, the ministry said.
Okinawa is close to Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province to be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary.
The recent spike in tensions between Tokyo and Beijing stems from Japanese Prime Miniter Sanae Takaichi’s remarks that a military attack on Taiwan could present a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, indicating the SDF’s potential involvement in response to such a scenario.
The introduction of a third aircraft carrier has enabled China to use them on a rotational basis, with at least one always deployed while the other two undergo maintenance work, according to experts.
BY: KYODO
