BEIJING (AP) — A squadron of Chinese Navy ships sailed through straits near Japan into the Western Pacific this week, while Beijing on Friday blasted Tokyo’s adoption of a new national security strategy.
The destroyers Lhasa and Kaifeng, and a replenishment ship, sailed through the Osumi Strait in southern Japan, while a Dongdiao-class surveillance ship with the hull number 796 sailed through the Miyako Strait south of Okinawa, all arriving in the Western Pacific by Thursday.
Japan’s Defense Ministry said the craft were closely shadowed by Japanese ships and planes throughout.
The Communist Party newspaper Global Times on Friday cited unidentified experts saying the mission “sent a signal amid Japan’s recent militaristic moves” that will display the People’s Liberation Army’s “capabilities in safeguarding China’s national sovereignty, territorial integrity and development interests.”
China routinely sends warships through straits between Japanese islands, even while it vehemently objects to the presence of foreign navy ships in the Taiwan Strait.
Late last month, Russian and Chinese strategic bombers also flew over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea during an eight-hour mission in a show of increasingly close defense ties between the two countries.
Japan plans to spend 5 trillion yen ($37 billion) to deploy foreign-developed standoff missiles as early as 2026, including Lockheed Martin’s Tomahawk and Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, while Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industry develops a surface-to-ship guided missile.