China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier set for Pacific training exercise

The warship and its escorts passed through the strategically important Miyako Strait and are expected to start the drill soon
While China is stepping up its activities around the Taiwan Strait, US carriers are winding down their operations for Christmas

China’s military

Minnie Chan

Published: 9:00am, 19 Dec 2021

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A Chinese flotilla led by the country’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, is entering the Pacific Ocean for a high seas training exercise.

The drill is taking place as American aircraft carriers either sail to the Indian Ocean or their home port for Christmas and New Year, indicating the People’s Liberation Army Navy remains on alert, defence analysts said.

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The Liaoning – accompanied by the Nanchang, a Type 055 destroyer; the Rizhao, a Type 054A frigate; and the Hulun Lake supply ship – was spotted about 350km (220 miles) west of the Danjo islands on Wednesday, the Japanese defence ministry said.

The flotilla then crossed the Miyako Strait to enter the Pacific the following day.

This formation is not a full-scale carrier battle group, but it is likely that at least one more ship will join them for the drill, Lu Li-shih, a former instructor at Taiwan’s Naval Academy in Kaohsiung, said.

“The PLA used to deploy warships, sometimes just a single vessel, to pass the first island chain for different tasks, and then requested them to join a flotilla for training,” Lu said.

The first island chain, which runs from Japan to the Malay Peninsula and includes Taiwan, plays an important role in US strategic thinking for the region and Chinese forces have to pass through it to access the wider Pacific.

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On Tuesday, Japan’s navy said it had spotted the Type 052D guided-missile destroyer Xiamen passing through the Miyako Strait, and Lu said it was the most likely candidate to join the exercise.

The PLA so far has two active aircraft carriers, with a third near completion, and all Chinese carrier battle groups have been designed to operate outside the first island chain to stop foreign forces from intervening in the event of an attack on Taiwan.

Beijing regards the island as a renegade province and has never renounced the use of force to bring it to heel.

Meanwhile, the two United States carrier groups that patrol the Pacific have wound down their operations ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays.

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According to the US Navy Institute, the USS Ronald Reagan returned to its home port in Yokosuka, Japan, while the USS Carl Vinson is in the Indian Ocean off the northwest coast of Australia.

Zhou Chenming, a researcher from the Yuan Wang military science and technology think tank, said: “The PLA will not relax its military deployment and regular patrols around Taiwan.”

Zhou also said Beijing was concerned about the increasing interactions between US congressmen and officials with Taiwan and would look to enhance security in the Taiwan Strait.

“Beijing can’t make out Washington’s real intentions. It seems that what [Joe] Biden told President Xi [Jinping] in their virtual summit – that the White House would prevent Sino-US competition veering off into military conflict – is looking like empty rhetoric.”

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Earlier this month, the South China Morning Post disclosed that the PLA’s second Type 075 landing helicopter dock was expected to be deployed to the Eastern Theatre Command, which oversees the Taiwan Strait, to give front-line units a powerful strike platform.

Last week the state broadcaster China Central Television reported that the first Type 075, which is deployed to the Southern Theatre Command, had reached initial operational capability, the basic requirement for warships to be deployed.