Japan spots Chinese navy’s show of force in west Pacific amid maritime row

The Liaoning aircraft carrier and other ships are seen off the Japanese island of Minamitori, with their presence signalling a message to Tokyo

China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier has for the first time ventured into the easternmost edge of Japan’s exclusive economic zone, in what is seen as a show of force aimed at Tokyo, Washington and the broader region.

The Liaoning – Beijing’s first aircraft carrier – and at least three accompanying warships were spotted on Saturday around 300km southwest of Minamitori, a remote Japanese island in the western Pacific, which serves as a bulwark for Tokyo to assert its maritime claims.

The group, which includes two guided-missile destroyers and a fast combat support ship, appeared to be conducting air operations, with fighter jets and helicopters landing on and taking off from the carrier on Sunday, national broadcaster NHK reported. Analysts believe the fleet may have been accompanied by a Chinese submarine.

The manoeuvres mark the first known operation by a Chinese carrier group in a zone long considered a vital part of Japan’s defence boundaries and a key buffer between China and US military outposts, such as those in Guam and Hawaii.

Analysts suggest the fleet is showing its capabilities and reach in a new area targeted at Beijing’s rivals.

“Just a few years ago, China would not have put a naval group into the Pacific, so it is now showing that it is willing and able to do just that,” said Masayuki Masuda, director of Chinese studies at the National Institute of Defence Studies in Tokyo.

“The Chinese navy is expanding its operational areas to ‘far seas’ areas and developing new skills and knowledge,” he told This Week in Asia. “This is a message not just to Japan about its new capabilities, but also to the US, and that it is now beyond the first island chain, and can go to Guam or even as far as Hawaii,” he said.

Guam and Hawaii are 2,440km and 4,750km, respectively, apart from Minamitori.

Stephen Nagy, a professor of international relations at Tokyo’s International Christian University, said while the Chinese vessels’ voyage was valuable for training purposes, its messaging was more important.

“This tells Japan and the US that Chinese forces are able to carry out these actions and they are able to move freely in the Pacific,” he said. “It is also designed to make Tokyo feel less secure and to demonstrate that China is increasing its abilities to invade Taiwan.”

It was unlikely a coincidence that the US and China were scheduled to hold talks in London on Monday on the trade tariffs that President Donald Trump wanted to be imposed on China, Nagy said.

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. While many nations, including the US, do not officially acknowledge Taiwan as an independent state, they oppose any use of force to alter the existing status quo.

Another factor behind the Chinese fleet’s activities is the dispute over Okinotorishima, an atoll 1,080km south of Tokyo that Japan claims as its southernmost point, according to Masuda. Japan argues that the atoll qualifies as an island given its protrusion of 9.44 square metres above water and this buttresses its claim for an exclusive economic zone surrounding Okinotorishima, which is disputed by China.

“Chinese ships have been carrying out more regular surveying in waters around Okintorishima as Beijing takes the position that the island is just a rock that cannot be used to claim ocean territory,” Masuda said.

China has insisted Okinotorishima cannot support human life based on the definition of an island under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and it would have been submerged had Japan not artificially built small above-water areas around it.

Tokyo has countered that China previously carried out similar building activities on the disputed islands of the South China Sea under its control.

Masuda noted that Chinese state media was giving more publicity to the increased Chinese naval activities in the area, in a move to put pressure on the international community to support Beijing’s position on the island.

“We expect China to send more carrier groups to this area and other ‘far seas’ in order to advance its claims,” he added.