China has sent a group of warships to conduct exercises in the western Pacific Ocean, a move that comes as Japan joins massive exercises with the US and the Philippines for the first time, underscoring rising tensions between Tokyo and Beijing.
The Chinese Navy has dispatched a naval task force led by the Baotou Type 052D destroyer to transit between the Japanese islands of Amami Oshima and Yokoate and conduct training in the Western Pacific, according to a statement from the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command on Sunday.
China’s drills also come days after it criticized Tokyo for sending a warship through the Taiwan Strait.
They are designed to test the force’s operational capabilities at high seas, according to a statement that characterized the operation as a routine training exercise not aimed at any specific country or target.
The exercise plan illustrates how China’s navy is becoming more active west of the so-called First Islands chain, which stretches from Japan through Taiwan to the Philippines. In June last year, Japan said it had observed two Chinese aircraft carriers and support warships operating simultaneously near Japan’s remote islands in the Pacific Ocean for the first time.
While Japan regularly reports Chinese warships passing by its southwestern islands, this is the first time China has announced that naval vessels will pass through the Yokoate waterway, which is closer to the Japanese mainland than the more commonly used Miyako Strait for access to the Pacific Ocean.
The latest Chinese exercise comes as the US, the Philippines and other countries including Japan begin large-scale joint exercises in the Philippines on Monday, called Balikatan. This is the first Japanese participation in combat exercises at Balikatan.
Tensions between Japan and China remain high. China on Friday criticized the presence of a Japanese Self-Defense Force vessel in the Taiwan Strait. At a regular news conference, Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun called the move “provocative” and said Beijing had lodged an official protest with Tokyo. Japan has not confirmed the transit through the Taiwan Strait, but local media reports say it was the fourth by a Japanese warship since 2024.
Beijing continues to pressure Tokyo over comments made by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about Taiwan last year, when she suggested Tokyo could deploy its military if China uses force to try to control Taiwan. Takaichi refused to retract her comments about the island democracy, which China claims as its territory.
Since then, Beijing has introduced a series of punitive actions targeting Japanese imports of dual-use goods for military purposes as well as tourism. Tokyo has not yet directly retaliated against these moves.
The excursion also comes after the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command announced on Saturday that it had conducted joint naval and air readiness patrols aimed at testing joint naval and air capabilities in the East China Sea.
The Type 052 is the PLA Navy’s third-generation destroyer, which forms the bulk of its destroyer fleet. Baotou was noted by state radio as a newer vessel that has comprehensive anti-submarine and anti-aircraft defense capabilities.
This article was generated from an automated news agency source without text modification.
