Chinese Aircraft Carrier Challenges US's Pacific War Strategy
China continues to challenge the United States' maritime containment strategy in the Pacific Ocean by sending an aircraft carrier to contested waters near Japan, a key Washington ally.
Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at a news conference on Wednesday that China's naval activities "are entirely in accordance with international law and international practice" and also urged Japan to view the matter "objectively and rationally."
Newsweek has contacted the Chinese Defense Ministry for comment by email.
Under the U.S.'s island chain strategy, three defensive lines are established by leveraging U.S.-aligned territories to restrict China's access to the Pacific Ocean. The closest one to the East Asian power is the first island chain, consisting of Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines.
China has the world's largest navy by hull count, according to a Pentagon report, with more than 370 ships and submarines, including two aircraft carriers in active service. This naval fleet enables China to expand its military presence and reach within and beyond the island chains.
The recent deployment of the Chinese aircraft carrier comes as the U.S. Navy has sent a pair of aircraft carriers to different waters in the western Pacific Ocean this week: the USS Nimitz, operating in the South China Sea, and the USS George Washington, operating near Japan.
The Chinese aircraft carrier CNS Liaoning, previously spotted in the East China Sea north of Japan's southwestern Senkaku Islands, passed through the Miyako Strait southeast toward the Philippine Sea on Tuesday, the Joint Staff of the Japanese Defense Ministry announced.
The Liaoning was operating in waters southeast of Japan's southwestern Miyako Island eight hours after sailing through the strait. It was joined by the Chinese Type 055 destroyer CNS Nanchang and the Type 052D destroyer CNS Qiqihar, both identified by their hull numbers.
Prior to its strait transit, the Chinese aircraft carrier was observed conducting flight missions while underway in the East China Sea from Sunday to Monday, the Japan Joint Staff added. Its fighter jets and helicopters carried out 90 and 30 takeoffs and landings, respectively.
According to a map provided by the Japan Joint Staff, the Chinese naval ships were tracked outside Japan's territorial waters—which extend up to 13.8 miles from the coastline—but have remained within Japan's 230-mile-wide exclusive economic zone since Monday.
The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force dispatched ships and aircraft to surveil and gather intelligence on the Chinese naval task group, while Japanese fighter aircraft were scrambled in response to the flight operations of the Liaoning's fighter jets, the Japan Joint Staff said.
Earlier this month, a group of five Chinese naval vessels was detected transiting the Miyako Strait toward the Philippine Sea. This waterway is one of the key gateways along the first island chain that the Chinese navy uses to access the broader western Pacific Ocean.
The Joint Staff of the Japanese Defense Ministry said on Wednesday: "Yesterday, there was a risk of airspace violation in the East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean, so fighter jets from the Western Air Defense Force of the Air Self-Defense Force were scrambled to respond."
The Chinese Defense Ministry previously commented: "Japan has been closely tracking, monitoring, and interfering with Chinese vessels and aircraft for a long time, jeopardizing the safety of Chinese vessels and aircraft and easily causing maritime and air security problems."
It was not immediately clear whether the Liaoning would carry out any military drills while operating in waters east of Taiwan, a self-governed island claimed by China.
Related Articles
Trump's Greenland Bid Poses Global Dangers, Says the Woman Facing Him DownChina Responds to Trump Freeze on Student Visa InterviewsChina Reveals Laser Tech to Read Text From a Mile AwayPhotos Show Chinese Ship Detected in Waters Claimed by US Ally
2025 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNBC
10 minutes ago
- CNBC
Washington's tariff volatility masks a broader battle for tech dominance: Pictet
Pictet Research Institute's Maria Vassalou says the U.S. is walking a tightrope, relying on Chinese rare earths to maintain tech supremacy, while imposing tariffs to slow Beijing's challenge.
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Chinese factory activity improves slightly with delay on tariffs, but still lags
BANGKOK (AP) — Chinese factory activity improved somewhat in June after President Donald Trump agreed to delay imposing higher tariffs on imports from China for 90 days, but overall activity was still contracting, according to a survey released Monday. The purchasing managers index, which reflects new orders and other measures, rose to 49.7 from 49.5 in May, the National Bureau of Statistics reported. That's on a scale of 0 to 100 where 50 and above shows expansion. Other reports showed similar trends in Japan and Korea. Trump has said he's not planning to extend the 90-day pause on tariffs on most nations beyond July 9. The delay for imposing much higher tariffs on China, agreed to in early May, expires about a month later. The hiatus for tariffs brought a revival of manufacturing activity as companies and individuals rushed to take advantage of lower import duties. But that mainly helped large manufacturers, with small and mid-size companies' output still contracting. Hiring also fell. New export orders and exports also remained below the 50-level that marks expansion. In Japan, manufacturing output edged 0.5% higher in May, well below analysts' estimates for a 3.5% increase. 'The subdued rise in industrial production in May means that firms were not benefitting from sky-high U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports, and their production forecasts point to continued weakness,' Marcel Thieliant of Capital Economics said in a report. South Korea's government reported that its 'all industry' measure of output fell 2.9% from a year earlier in May, with production of computer chips falling 2%. Production of vehicles fell 2.3% year-on-year, after falling 4.1% in April. In an interview with Fox News Channel's 'Sunday Morning Futures,' Trump said he's not planning to extend a 90-day pause on tariffs on most nations beyond July 9. The delay for imposing much higher tariffs on China, agreed to in early May, expires about a month later. Trump said his administration will notify countries that the trade penalties will take effect unless there are deals with the United States. He had played down the deadline at a White House news conference Friday by noting how difficult it would be to work out separate deals with each nation. The administration had set a goal of reaching 90 trade deals in 90 days. Details of the latest agreement to deescalate trade tensions are scarce and major issues between the world's two biggest economies remain unresolved. 'I think getting along well with China is a very good thing,' Trump said. 'China's going to be paying a lot of tariffs, but we have a big (trade) deficit, they understand that.'
CNBC
2 hours ago
- CNBC
Trump says he has group of ‘very wealthy people' ready to buy TikTok
U.S. President Donald Trump told Fox News in an interview aired on Sunday that he has a group of "very wealthy people" ready to buy TikTok, whose identities he can reveal in about two weeks. Trump added that the deal will probably need Beijing's approval to move forward, but said "I think President Xi will probably do it," in reference to China's leader Xi Jinping. The president made the off-the-cuff remarks while discussing the possibility of another pause of his "reciprocal" tariffs on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo." Tiktok's fate in the U.S. has been in doubt since the approval of a law in 2024 that sought to ban the platform unless its Chinese owner, ByteDance, divested from it. The legislation was driven by concerns that the Chinese government could manipulate content and access sensitive data from American users. Earlier this month, Trump extended the deadline for ByteDance to divest from the platform's U.S. business. It was his third extension since the Supreme Court upheld the TikTok law just a few days before Trump's second presidential inauguration in January. The new deadline is Sept. 17. The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, of PAFACA, had originally been set to take effect on Jan. 19, after which app store operators and internet service providers would be penalized for supporting TikTok. TikTok went dark in the U.S. ahead of the original deadline, but was restored after Trump provided it with assurances on the extension. Trump, who credited the app with boosting his support among young voters in the last presidential election, has maintained that he would like to see the platform stay afloat under new ownership. Potential buyers that have voiced interest in the app include Trump insiders such as Oracle's Larry Ellison to firms like AppLovin and Perplexity AI. However, it's unclear if ByteDance would be willing to sell the company. Any potential divestiture is likely to require approval from the Chinese government. A deal that would have spun off TikTok's U.S. operations and allowed ByteDance to retain a minority position had been in the works in April, but was derailed by the announcement of Donald Trump's tariffs on China, Reuters reported that month. The president previously floated a proposal for American stakeholders to buy the company and then sell a 50% stake to the U.S. government as part of a joint venture. Experts have previously told CNBC that any potential deal could face legal challenges in the U.S., depending on whether it complies with PAFACA.
