Japan scrambled fighter jets to monitor China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier and five warships that it said conducted naval and aerial operations in the Pacific.
CHINESE OPERATIONS IN THE PACIFIC
In a press release on Monday, Japan’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced that it had monitored the operations of the Chinese naval group on 16 December. The fleet included missile destroyers and sailed between the main Okinawa Island and Miyakojima Island into the Western Pacific from the East China Sea.
The Chinese fleet took the same route on its return on Sunday, during which it practised more than 300 take-offs and landings of fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, the ministry added. The ministry did not report any incursions into Japan’s territorial waters or skies.
Recently #China’s aircraft carrier Liaoning & other vessels ran exercises in the West Pacific sailing close to Guam, the carrier reportedly hosted about 260 sorties in the region, east of Taiwan, here's a basic plot showing ranges of some of their weapons in that sector pic.twitter.com/q0Mx2kJZFS
— Damien Symon (@detresfa_) December 30, 2022
Tokyo also said that it detected the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) WZ-7 drone flying close to Miyakojima on Sunday, and once more on Monday. It marked the first time that a high-altitude drone was spotted in the area.
JAPAN’S GROWING DEFENCE BUDGET
While China has conducted similar operations in the past, the PLA’s latest large-scale military drills in close proximity to Japanese islands happened for the first time after Japan announced the expansion of its defence budget in a bid to counter growing Chinese aggression.
As a result of friction with its northern neighbour, Japanese Prime Minister (PM) Fumio Kishida ordered his cabinet to increase the country’s defence spending to 2% of the GDP in the next five years, up from its longstanding current level of around 1%.