Japan has confirmed that two Chinese aircraft carriers are simultaneously carrying out operations in the Pacific for the first time, a move that Tokyo interprets as an indication of Beijing’s plans to further extend its military reach beyond its borders.
The Shandong, China’s domestically built aircraft carrier, and four other naval vessels sailed into the waters southwest of Japan’s Miyakojima island on June 7, Tokyo’s Joint Staff Office said in a June 9 statement on its website.
Later that day, Japan detected another group of Chinese naval vessels, including the aircraft carrier Liaoning, in the waters 186 miles southwest of Minamitorishima, an isolated Japanese atoll in the Pacific Ocean, the Joint Staff Office said in a separate statement. That falls within Japan’s exclusive economic zone, defined by the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea as lying within 200 nautical miles (about 230 miles) from the shoreline….
Japan Says China Sent 2 Aircraft Carriers in Pacific for First Time
