China’s first operational aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, and its strike group sailed near Japan on Monday and held combat drills in the Western Pacific on Wednesday.
A spokesman for the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) insisted the training exercise was needed to “improve the aircraft carrier battle group’s ability to fulfill its missions” and “complied with relevant international law and practice, not targeting any party.”
The Liaoning is an antique Russian ship purchased by China from Ukraine in the late 1990s and refurbished by the Chinese, first as a training vessel and later as an active-duty combat ship. Its battle group includes six guided-missile ships of varying sizes, a supply ship, and possibly several submarines.
The Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) sent its helicopter carrier Izumo plus several patrol aircraft to monitor the Chinese battle group as it passed through the Miyako Strait near Okinawa.
SH-60 helicopters are seen as Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) escort ship Izumo takes part in a fleet review off Sagami Bay, Kanagawa prefecture, on October 18, 2015. (TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty Images)
The U.S. 7th Fleet also monitored the transit, as did the Taiwanese military, which said on Tuesday it was prepared to take “appropriate response measures” if the Liaoning battle group heads for Taiwan next.
In this photo released on April 12, 2018, China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier is accompanied by navy frigates and submarines conducting the largest naval drill in the communist regime’s history. (Li Gang/Xinhua via AP)
The Liaoning has sailed through the Miyako Strait with smaller groups of ships several times before, most recently in December. The strait is an international waterway, but the Japanese are not thrilled to see Chinese carrier battle groups using it, as Temple University international affairs expert James Brown explained to Stars & Stripes on Wednesday.
“They are a demonstration of China’s growing ability to conduct carrier-led exercises in the vicinity of Japan. This is also a show of force intended to discourage Japan from deeper involvement in the security situation around Taiwan,” Brown said of Liaoning’s mission.
“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 Japan Times wrote on Wednesday, citing comments from Japanese Defense Ministry officials.
China’s second carrier, the Shandong, completed sea trials in 2018 and made a provocative passage through the Strait of Taiwan in March, hours ahead of a scheduled telephone conversation between dictator Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden. The Shandong is a domestically-produced copy of the Liaoning design with some technical enhancements.
China’s third carrier is under construction at the Jiangnan shipyard and is expected to launch sometime this year. It is a considerably more advanced design than the Liaoning, including launch catapults instead of the “ski slope” runway featured on the older carriers. Under current PLAN procedures, this Type 003 carrier would require several years of sea trials before it could be commissioned and assigned to active duty.