China’s two operating aircraft carriers have been spotted conducting simultaneous operations in the Pacific for the first time, according to Japan’s Defense Ministry, as Beijing continues to highlight its growing military prowess ever farther from its shores.
Beijing confirmed late Tuesday that the two carriers, the Shandong and Liaoning, had conducted the training “to test the forces’ capabilities in far seas defense and joint operations,” Chinese Navy spokesperson Senior Capt. Wang Xuemeng said Tuesday, calling the exercises “routine training” that did not target at any specific country.
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said earlier in the day that the Shandong had been spotted along with four other Chinese warships in Japan’s exclusive economic zone about 550 kilometers southeast of Miyako Island in Okinawa Prefecture on Saturday. The fleet was then spotted Monday in the EEZ north of Okinotorishima, Japan’s southernmost island some 1,700 km south of Tokyo, where it conducted flight operations with fighter jets and helicopters.
