US Ally Intercepts Chinese Warships in Pacific

A flotilla of Chinese navy ships appears to be returning home after a week of operations in the Western Pacific, according to Japanese geospatial data released on Wednesday.

Photographs captured by ships and aircraft of Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force showed the Chinese warships Zhengzhou and Anyang, which had been in the Pacific from at least April 2, said a report by the Joint Staff under the Japanese Defense Ministry.

Japan said it dispatched the Abukuma-class destroyer escort JS Jintsu, the Sugashima-class minesweeper JS Kuroshima, as well as P-1 and P-3C maritime patrol aircraft to intercept and surveil the flotilla. The Chinese ships did not appear to approach Japanese territorial waters.

Japan publishes regular updates about Chinese and Russian naval and air force deployments around its archipelagic territory. The Chinese Defense Ministry did not immediately return Newsweek’s written request for comment on the nature of its latest Pacific operations.

The Zhengzhou, a Type 052C or Luyang II-class destroyer, and the Anyang, a Type 054A or Jiangkai II-class frigate, sailed out of the East China Sea last week via waters between Taiwan and Yonaguni, Japan’s westernmost inhabited island, less than 70 miles away, according to Tokyo’s map.

When the pair returned from Pacific operations on April 10, they were joined by the Type 815 or Dongdiao-class spy ship Beijixing. The electronic intelligence vessel, capable of tracking enemy missiles hundreds of miles away, has been known to appear during sensitive weapons tests.

The three Chinese ships sailed north together via the Miyako Strait, the Joint Staff report said. The strait sits between the Japanese islands of Miyako and Okinawa and is one of the few international waterways Beijing’s naval forces can use to exit the first island chain, making it a potential choke point in wartime.

Tokyo is wary of neighboring Beijing’s growing hard power, as well as its increasing political and military alignment with Moscow. The long-time U.S. security treaty ally is taking unprecedented steps to rearm amid wider regional tensions.

With an eye on China, Fumio Kishida, Japan’s prime minister, arrived in Washington, D.C., this week for a bilateral summit with President Joe Biden to upgrade their alliance.

In a joint-statement on Wednesday, Biden and Kishida said they opposed any attempts by China “to unilaterally change the status quo by force or coercion in the East China Sea, including through actions that seek to undermine Japan’s longstanding and peaceful administration of the Senkaku Islands.”

At a regular press conference in Beijing on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the United States and Japan were “smearing China” and interfering in its internal affairs.

“China is strongly dissatisfied and resolutely opposes this,” Mao said, adding that Beijing had lodged formal diplomatic complaints with both capitals.