Chinese aircraft carriers enter Pacific Ocean for first time, challenging US dominance near Japan
The Chinese Navy has sent its two aircraft carriers into the Pacific for the first time, demonstrating to the world its ability as a naval power to threaten America's dominance of the world's biggest ocean.
Two carrier battle groups led by the Liaoning and the Shandong operated near the Japanese island of Iwo Jima over the weekend, the Japanese Government reported. It is the first time either of the carriers have sailed that far west, military experts said.
The People's Liberation Army Navy posted photos of the ships and aircraft on the X social media site, declaring they were engaged in routine training aimed at 'continuously enhancing the PLA Navy's capabilities of fulfilling the missions'.
Operating the world's biggest navy by number of ships, China has embarked on an ambitious plan to build aircraft carriers to extend its military power far beyond its borders. A third carrier currently being tested would be almost as technologically advanced as its American counterparts, according a military analyst at the Lowy think tank in Sydney, Sam Roggeveen.
'It's a signal of what China's increasingly capable of,' he said. 'Traditionally the apex of naval in the modern age has been aircraft carriers and they are are showing they are on a path to having capabilities that are equal and maybe superior to that of the US.'
Satellite photograph shows a fourth carrier may be under construction in the port of Dalian on the Yellow Sea. In response, Japan is building its first aircraft carriers since World War II.
Never before has a Chinese carrier sailed beyond what is known as the First Island Chain, an informal maritime boundary that runs from southern Japan, east of Taiwan to the South China Sea.
Each of the two carriers in operation probably carry 30 to 36 Shenyang J-15 jet fighters, Mr Roggeveen said, which are similar to the F/A-18F Super Hornets operated by the Royal Australian Air Force.
'Chinese naval vessels' activities in those waters are fully consistent with international law and international practices,' a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at a press conference in Beijing. 'Our national defence policy is defensive in nature.'
The Shandong fleet sailed north of the island of Okinotorishima and flew jets and helicopters inside Japan's exclusive economic zone around the island, according to the Japanese government. With the aircraft carrier is a 'super-destroyer', two frigates and a supply ship.
The Defence Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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