TOKYO — Japan on Monday scrambled jet fighters and sent aircraft and warships over the past two weeks to monitor China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier and five warships that conducted naval exercises and flight operations in the Pacific. announced.
Japan oversaw the operation after a Chinese naval group, including a missile destroyer, sailed from the East China Sea to the western Pacific on Dec. 16, between the islands of Okinawa and Miyako, Japan’s defense ministry said in a press release. .
The Chinese aircraft carrier made more than 300 takeoffs and landings of fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters before returning home the same way on Sunday, the ministry added, but there have been no reports of incursions into Japanese territorial waters or air.
The Chinese Communist regime has conducted similar operations in the past, including one in May, but the latest large-scale military exercises near the Japanese archipelago are expected to see Japan take steps to deter Chinese attacks in the future. It came after announcing a doubling of defense spending for the year. The administration has banned the use of the military to advance territorial claims in the region, including those against neighboring Taiwan.
Japan also reported that it again detected flights by Chinese WZ-7 drones near Miyako Island on Sunday and Monday.
