Japan said on Monday it sent fighter jets and dispatched planes and warships over the past two weeks to control China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier and five warships that conducted naval maneuvers and flight operations in the Pacific.
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Japan supervised the operations after the Chinese naval group, which included missile destroyers, sailed between the main island of Okinawa and the island of Miyakojima into the western Pacific from the East China Sea on Dec. 16, the Defense Ministry said. of Japan in a press release.
Before returning the same way on Sunday, the Chinese airline carried out more than 300 takeoffs and landings of planes and helicopters, the ministry added, not reporting any incursions into Japanese territorial waters or skies.
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While China has carried out similar operations in the past, including one in May, the latest large-scale military exercises near the Japanese islands come after Japan announced it would double defense spending over the next five years in a attempt to dissuade China from using its military. to push territorial claims in the region, including against neighboring Taiwan.
Japan also reported that it had detected flights of a Chinese WZ-7 drone near Miyakojima on Sunday and again on Monday, the first time it had seen the high-altitude drone in the area.
