Japan says that China is ‘expanding’ military presence in the Pacific

The Japanese authorities say that they have seen two Chinese aircraft carriers in the Pacific for the first time, with Tokyo to say that it is showing an extension of Beijing’s military operations.

China said on Tuesday that the Shandong and Liaoning carriers, the only two that are currently in operation, carried out “routine training” with a third setting seam tests.

“We believe that the goal of the Chinese army is to improve its operational capacity and the ability to perform operations in distant areas,” a spokesperson for the Japanese Ministry of Defense told AFP.

Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani said reporters that the observations show that the “activity area of ​​the Chinese army is expanding”.

“Japan has stated that the Chinese activities would not threaten Japan’s safety” by diplomatic routes to Beijing, Mr Nakatani said.

He added that the Japanese army would continue to follow and patrol the operations of Chinese naval war ships.

A spokesperson for the Navy van Beijing mentioned the activities of the ships “routine training” that was intended to test the defense options of troops in an online statement.

When demanding the movements during a regular newsletter, the spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Lin Jian repeated a statement given the previous day about the journey of the Liaoning.

“The activities of Chinese warships in the relevant sea areas are fully in accordance with international law and international practice,” he said, adding that Japan “should take an objective and rational view of this issue”.

The use of China’s naval and air assets to press its territorial claims, the United States and its allies in the Asia-Pacific region rattled.

The Australian Navy followed three Chinese ships that sailed to the east of Sydney earlier this year.

Chinese ships enter the Japanese economic zone

On Monday, the Shandong sailed in the Japanese economic waters around the remote Pacific -atol of Okinotori, said the Ministry of Defense of Tokyo.

It was accompanied by four other ships, including a rocket destruction, and fighter jets and helicopters carried out start-offs and landings, because they also sailed through Pacific Waters on Saturday.

The ministry said earlier that the other operational airline of China and its fleet came in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of Japan in the Pacific on weekends before he left to perform exercises with fighter jets.

Japanese and American defense officials say that China wants to push the American army from the so -called “First Island Chain” from Japan through the Philippines.

Ultimately, it is his strategy to dominate areas west of the “second island chain” in the Pacific between the remote Ogasawara Islands of Japan and the American territory of Guam, they say.

The recent cruise of the liaoning in the east was the first time that the Japanese Ministry of Defense said that a Chinese aircraft carrier had crossed the second island chain.

Daisuke Kawai, director of the economic security research program of the University of Tokyo, said AFP that these activities represent “a very important strategic escalation”.

In September the liaoning sailed between two Japanese islands near Taiwan and entered Japanese adjacent waters, an area of ​​up to 24 nautical kilometers off the coast.

At the time, Tokyo called that movement “unacceptable” and expressed “serious worries” for Beijing.

According to international law, a state of rights to the management of natural resources and other economic activities within its EEZ, which lies within 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) of his coastline.

Mr Kawai said that the expected commissioning of the third aircraft carrier Van Beijing, called Fujian, later this year, means “the maritime operational pace of China and the geographical influence of influence will increase considerably”.

And the timing of the sailings can be linked to the wider context of economic tensions in the US china.

“Senior American policy makers, including President Trump himself, have shifted their focus from strategic inclusion from China to securing economic compromises,” he said.

“Thus, Beijing calculated that the United States would be less willing or able to respond militarily at this precise moment and see it as a suitable time to demonstrate the growing military capacities.”

AFP/ABC