Chinese destroyer on long-distance exercises in Sea of Japan, to deter ‘attack on Taiwan’

Japan’s Defence Ministry said three ships were spotted about 200 kilometres west of Fukue island in Nagasaki on Sunday travelling east toward the Sea of Japan

State run newspaper Global Times said mission was the first for the Type 055 destroyer Lhasa since its commissioning last year

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Screen shot from a video shows the Lhasa, the second Type 055 10,000 ton-class large destroyer of the Chinese navy. Photo: Online/Weibo

Published: 1:25pm, 16 Jun 2022Updated: 1:29pm, 16 Jun 2022

One of China’s largest and most capable combat ships is conducting long-distance exercises in the Sea of Japan, state media reported on Thursday, in a display of China’s increasing naval reach.

State run newspaper Global Times said the mission was the first for the Type 055 destroyer Lhasa since its commissioning last year.

It is accompanied by the Luyang-class Type 052D destroyer Chengdu and the Type 903 oiler Dongpinghu, the paper said, citing Japan’s Defence Ministry. The Sea of Japan lies to the north of China between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin Island, the Korean peninsula and the Russian Far East mainland.

Japan’s Defence Ministry said the three ships were spotted about 200 kilometres west of Fukue island in Nagasaki on Sunday travelling east toward the Sea of Japan.

It said it also spotted a Dongdiao-class intelligence ship on Sunday operating near the Tsushima Strait which later sailed into the Sea of Japan.

China’s navy has been building ships at a furious pace and now boasts the largest naval force in the world by number of hulls.

Those ships have been growing in sophistication as well, with the Type 055, also known as the Nanchang class, featuring a stealthy design and packing air-defence missiles and anti-ship and anti-land cruise missiles, as well as torpedoes.

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