TAIPEI (Dispatches) -- Two U.S. aircraft carrier groups have entered the disputed South China Sea for training, the Department of Defense said on Monday.
U.S. Navy ships routinely sail close to Chinese islands in the South China Sea to challenge its sovereignty claims, as well as through the Taiwan Strait, to Beijing’s anger.
The U.S. Department of Defense said the two U.S. Navy Carrier Strike Groups, led by their flagships USS Carl Vinson and USS Abraham Lincoln, had begun operations in the South China Sea on Sunday.
The carrier groups will carry out exercises including anti-submarine warfare operations, air warfare operations and maritime interdiction operations to strengthen combat readiness, it said in a statement.
“Operations like these allow us to improve our combat credible capability, reassure our allies and partners, and demonstrate our resolve as a Navy to ensure regional stability and counter malign influence,” it quoted Rear Admiral J.T. Anderson, commander of the strike group led by the USS Abraham Lincoln, as saying.
Both carrier groups were reported on Sunday by the U.S. Navy to have been exercising with Japan’s navy in the Philippine Sea, an area that includes waters to the east of Chinese Taipei.
After the U.S. incursion, Taipei reported 39 Chinese aircraft flying into what the island calls its air defense identification zone in an area close to the Pratas Islands in the northern reaches of the South China Sea.
Taipei on Monday reported a further 13 Chinese aircraft in the zone, with one, an anti-submarine Y-8, flying through the Bashi Channel which separates Chinese Taipei from the Philippines and connects the Pacific to the South China Sea.
It added that two Chinese J-16Ds took part in the mission, though kept close to China’s coast, a new electronic attack version of the J-16 fighter designed to target anti-aircraft defenses.
China has yet to comment, but has previously said such missions are aimed at protecting its sovereignty and to prevent external interference in its sovereignty claims over democratically-governed Taiwan.
Security sources have previously said that China’s flights are also likely a response to foreign military activity, especially by U.S. forces, near the island, to warn that Beijing is watching and has the capability to handle any Taipei contingencies.