China sent an aircraft carrier and five escort ships, including a destroyer likened to the U.S. Navy’s Aegis-class vessels, through the Miyako Strait near Okinawa over the weekend in a signal of its growing ability to counter American and Japanese military power further from its shores.
Japan’s Defense Ministry announced late Sunday that the Liaoning carrier and five other warships were spotted Saturday sailing south through international waters in the narrow passageway that separates Okinawa’s main island and Miyako Island. The vessels did not enter Japanese waters or its contiguous zone.
Among the six vessels was the Chinese navy’s powerful Type 055 Renhai-class guided-missile destroyer, which was first deployed in January last year. The destroyer is equipped with vertical-launch missiles, and observers say it is capable of launching long-range cruise missiles as well as anti-ship weapons.
Experts said the move highlighted the Chinese military’s ability to punch through the so-called first island chain, a chain of Pacific islands stretching from the Kurils and the Ryukyus to Taiwan, the Philippines and Indonesia.
But more importantly, perhaps, is the move’s significance in terms of China’s evolving strategy to counter the U.S. and potentially Japan in any clash in the area — an area that includes both Taiwan and the disputed South China Sea, home to sea lanes critical to Japan’s economic well-being.
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