Japan Tracked PLA Carrier ‘Liaoning’ from Close Range: China

The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy has accused Japan of making dangerous close-range tracking and disruptions to its Liaoning aircraft carrier during the latter's recent drills in the West Pacific.

Senior Colonel Wu Qian, a spokesperson at China's Ministry of National Defense, said at a regular press conference on Thursday that the training activities of the PLA Navy's Liaoning aircraft carrier group are completely reasonable and legitimate, and Japan's hype has its own scheme.

By hyping Chinese military activities, Japan likely wanted to show off its presence and create excuses for its own pursuit of military expansion, Wu said. "We firmly oppose this," he said.

Wu also pointed out that Japan's close-range tracking and disruptions were very dangerous that could have easily led to misunderstandings, misjudgments and accidents.

China demands that Japan stop all meaningless disruptions and safeguard bilateral ties as well as regional peace and stability with actions, as what Japan did is not beneficial to mutual trust and caused serious threats to the safety of both sides' vessels, aircraft and personnel, Global Times reported.

The U.S. stations a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Japan and frequently sends other vessels for training near Japan. Chinese observers question why Japan doesn’t oppose U.S. actions.

“Japan has some ulterior motives, Zhang Junshe, a senior research fellow at the Naval Research Academy of the PLA,” told the Global Times on Thursday.

“By hyping the ‘China threat’ theory, Japan is finding excuses to develop offensive weapons and military capabilities,” Zhang said, noting that Japan exposed this intention by again mentioning it will enhance so-called counterattack capabilities and increase its defense budget during the recent meeting between top U.S. and Japanese leaders.

Japan is also trying to shift the public attention away from its own provocative military activities like reconnaissance, patrols and drills in the East China Sea and South China Sea, Zhang said.

Japan’s defense minister Nobuo Kishi rclaimed that the PLA Navy's Liaoning aircraft carrier group recently operated near Japan's southwestern islands as well as the island of Taiwan. Kishi added that the carrier had hosted hundreds of aircraft sorties. Tokyo says it dispatched the helicopter carrier Izumo to track and monitor the Chinese vessels, and sent warplanes to deal with Chinese carrier-based aircraft activities.