A Chinese missile destroyer was seen passing by a Japanese island in the East China Sea, having nearly circled the country’s archipelago in a month-long sailing, Japan’s defence ministry said.
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According to the ministry, the Chinese navy’s Type 052D guided missile destroyer, also known as the Luyang-III class, bearing hull number 134, and its replenishment ship were spotted about 120km (75 miles) east of Miyako island of Okinawa prefecture by Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force on Sunday.
“It was subsequently confirmed that these vessels proceeded northwest through the waters between the main island of Okinawa and Miyakojima, heading towards the East China Sea,” the ministry said in a press release on Monday.
“The ministry of defence and the self-defence forces conducted surveillance and intelligence gathering using the Maritime Self-Defence Force’s 7th escort squadron’s Yūdachi (Ominato), the 45th minesweeping squadron’s Izushima (Hakodate), the 2nd air group’s P-3C (Hachinohe) and the 5th air group’s P-3C (Naha),” it added.
The Chinese vessels were the same as those that had sailed northeast through the Korea Strait between the Korean peninsula and the Japanese archipelago on July 24 and east through the Sōya Strait between Hokkaido and Russia’s Sakhalin on August 8, according to the press release.
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Fuji News Network, a Japanese television broadcaster, reported that the Chinese warships’ more than month-long manoeuvre near Japan “almost completely circled” the country’s archipelago.