Japan, one of two U.S. treaty allies in Northeast Asia, said it dispatched naval vessels and patrol planes to monitor a pair of advanced Chinese warships on maneuvers in the Western Pacific last week.
Photographs released on April 26 by the Joint Staff of Japan's Self-Defense Forces showed the Chinese navy ships Baotou and Shaoxing, both Type 052D destroyers, which the Japanese Defense Ministry had shadowed for roughly 48 hours.
A Newsweek map, based on Tokyo's geospatial data, illustrates the movements of the Chinese ships. They were first spotted at 4 a.m. local time on April 24 in the East China Sea in the seas around Uotsuri—the largest of the disputed Senkaku islets, called Diaoyu in Beijing—before steaming into the Philippine Sea in the waters between Taiwan and Japan's westernmost inhabited island of Yonaguni.
The warships, both of which have only been in service with the Chinese navy's East Sea Fleet for about three years, returned to the East China Sea on April 26 by sailing between the Japanese islands of Amami Oshima and Yokoate-jima, according to the Joint Staff.
Japan's Defense Ministry said it sent the Abukuma-class destroyer escort JS Jintsu and the Awaji-class minesweeper JS Hirado to monitor the Chinese vessels, along with P-1 and P-3C maritime patrol aircraft.
Tokyo regularly publishes the movements of Chinese and Russian ships and aircraft that have the potential to violate its territorial waters or airspace.
Taiwan, whose Defense Ministry also releases public information on Chinese warship movements, said it detected five Chinese navy vessels near its territory in the 24 hours to 6 a.m. local time on April 27, but it did not disclose their precise locations.
China's Defense Ministry did not immediately return a written request for comment before publication.
The Type 052D, which displaces up to 7,500 tons, is a dedicated multi-role destroyer known by the NATO reporting class Luyang III, a designation that reflects its hull upgrade from the smaller Type 052C or Luyang II class of ship.
Japan, echoing officials in the United States, say Beijing is embarking on a major military buildup to help it assert its territorial claims in neighboring waters. This includes those over democratically ruled Taiwan, which sits less than 70 miles west of Yonaguni, on which Japanese forces began operating Patriot air defense missiles last year.
In exclusive interview with Newsweek, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan said China was "expanding military capabilities in an untransparent manner," and that "unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force" were happening in the East and South China seas.
"I think we are facing the most challenging and complex security environment since the end of World War II," said Kishida. His government has committed to raising Japan's defense budget to 2 percent of GDP by 2027 and speeding up its efforts to acquire counterstrike missile capabilities, a move that also suggests one eye on North Korea.
"Now, while Japan and China share diverse possibilities, we also have many challenges and concerns," the Japanese leader said.
"We will assert what needs to be asserted, but we will value dialogues as well. And wherever we can cooperate for common challenges, we will cooperate. So, in this way, a constructive and stable relationship should be realized through mutual effort," Kishida said.
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John Feng is Newsweek's contributing editor for Asia based in Taichung, Taiwan. His focus is on East Asian politics. He ... Read more
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