{"id":116779,"date":"2025-06-19T07:03:35","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T07:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/06\/19\/chinese-navy-drill-near-japan-sparks-concern-and-protest\/"},"modified":"2025-06-19T07:03:35","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T07:03:35","slug":"chinese-navy-drill-near-japan-sparks-concern-and-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/chinese-navy-drill-near-japan-sparks-concern-and-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese navy drill near Japan sparks concern and protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Chinese naval drill near Japan has sparked concern from Tokyo, which in recent days lodged a protest with Beijing and made the rare decision to publicly disclose Chinese military movements.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the last few weeks China\u2019s two aircraft carriers, the Shandong and the Liaoning, have been conducting simultaneous drills in the Pacific, in an unprecedented move.<\/p>\n

Chinese fighter jets have done hundreds of landings and take-offs from the carriers. A few came close to Japanese surveillance planes, prompting Tokyo to convey its \u201cserious concerns\u201d to Beijing.<\/p>\n

China has said its activities are consistent with international law and accused Japan of conducting \u201cdangerous moves\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the Japanese defence ministry released a map tracing the Chinese aircraft carriers\u2019 daily positions since 25 May. Japan does not usually disclose details of foreign militaries\u2019 movements.<\/p>\n

It shows both carriers coming close to Japanese islands, and at times sailing through Japan\u2019s exclusive economic zone.<\/p>\n

The exclusive economic zone is an area beyond a country\u2019s territorial waters where that country has exclusive rights to explore and exploit marine resources, but other countries are allowed freedom of navigation through it.<\/p>\n

The map also shows the Liaoning sailing past the \u201csecond island chain\u201d, a line of defence outlined in US foreign policy doctrine that connects Japan to Guam. This makes it the first Chinese aircraft carrier to do so , according to Japanese news outlets.<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s defence ministry also said they had observed more than 500 landings and take-offs of Chinese fighter jets and helocpters during the drills.<\/p>\n

On 7 June, a Chinese fighter jet took off from the Shandong and followed a Japanese surveillance aircraft for about 40 minutes, according to Tokyo. The next day, a Chinese fighter jet flew close to a Japanese plane for twice that duration, and crossed in front of it.<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s chief cabinet secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said last week that they relayed to Beijing their concern about these \u201cabnormal approaches\u201d which could have caused accidental collisions.<\/p>\n

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said that their \u201cactivities in relevant waters and air space are consistent with international law and international practices\u201d, and that the two countries were communicating through existing channels.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me point out that it is the close-in reconnaissance of Japan\u2019s vessels and airplanes on China\u2019s normal military activities that has caused maritime and air security risks. China urges Japan to stop those dangerous moves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As its two carriers continue to sail through the Pacific, China\u2019s military gave an update on Tuesday on its newest carrier, the Fujian. It said sea trials were on track and the carrier is expected to enter service later this year.<\/p>\n

The Fujian will be their first carrier that will employ electromagnetic catapults to launch their planes \u2013 a technology that currently only American aircraft carriers possess.<\/p>\n

The technology allows a carrier to launch a wider range of aircraft, and launch fighter jets much faster.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s fighter jets will also be able to take off with their full fuel and weapon loads from the Fujian, noted a Global Times report, external, and the carrier would enable a \u201csignificantly higher\u201d number of sorties compared to its predecessors.<\/p>\n

This month\u2019s drill follows February\u2019s much-scrutinised naval exercise in the Tasman Sea that prompted concern from Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Canberra and Wellington had complained Beijing had given insufficient notice of the drill, and some commercial planes had to be diverted last minute.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s defence minister Richard Marles later acknowledged that the naval exercise was in accordance with international law, while at the same time urging China to be more transparent about the reasons for what he called an \u201cextraordinary military build-up\u201d.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Chinese naval drill near Japan has sparked concern from Tokyo, which in recent days lodged a protest with Beijing and made the rare decision to publicly disclose Chinese military movements. In the last few weeks China\u2019s two aircraft carriers, the Shandong and the Liaoning, have been conducting simultaneous drills in the Pacific, in an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116779\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}