The news should raise eyebrows from Tokyo to Sydney to Washington.
As open war broke out between Israel and Iran over the weekend, and as Ukraine continues to defend itself from Russian aggression, there was news on the other side of the world that should raise eyebrows from Tokyo to Sydney to Washington.
For the first time, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has sent two aircraft carriers into the open Pacific east of the so-called second island chain, a key geographic feature of the allied maritime containment strategy, which stretches south from Japan, to Iowa Jima, to the Marianas and Guam, to New Guinea.
Beijing has previously deployed a single carrier east of the second island chain; it’s never sent both of its operational carriers into the open Pacific to work as a pair.
Japan’s Defense Ministry said the two carriers, the Liaoning and the Shandong, were seen separately but almost simultaneously operating near southern islands in the Pacific for the first time. Both operated in waters off Iwo Jima, about 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) south of Tokyo, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said Monday.
The Liaoning also sailed inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone of Minamitorishima, the country’s easternmost island. There was no violation of Japanese territorial waters. Still, Nakatani said Japan has expressed “concern” to the Chinese embassy.
Both carriers had warplanes take off and land. Late Wednesday, Japan’s Defense Ministry said a Chinese J-15 fighter jet that took off from the Shandong on Saturday chased a Japanese P-3C aircraft on reconnaissance duty in the area and came within an “abnormally close distance” of 45 meters (50 yards).
The Liaoning is a former Soviet hulk that the PLAN retrofitted. Laid down in 1985, she began life as the Admiral Kuznetsov-class “heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser” Riga. The Shandong is China’s first domestically built carrier, with a design based on Liaoning. Both ships have a ski-jump takeoff system, instead of catapults, and carry approximately two dozen fifth-generation J-15 multi-role fighters, a Chinese variant of the Soviet Su-33 naval air-superiority fighter.
China’s two operational carriers are no match for the U.S. Navy’s supercarriers. But that could slowly be changing. The PLAN’s third carrier, the Type 003 Fujian, is currently finishing its sea trials. It’s an all-Chinese design, and with a displacement of about 80,000 tons, it is much larger than the first two PLAN carriers, which clocked in around 65,000 tonnes. Moreover, it has been reported that the Fujian has been fitted out with electromagnetic catapults, which will allow it to operate heavier aircraft — with heavier payloads of fuel and weaponry — than are capable of operating off the ski-jump equipped carriers. And the Chinese are also set to deploy the J-35 stealth fighter on the new carrier — which is a knock-off of the American F-35 and much more capable than the J-15.
Of course, China’s first Type 004 nuclear-powered supercarrier is projected to be completed sometime in the late 2020s, and there have been reports that China plans to build up to half a dozen of these monsters.
Finally, in other news that should also raise eyebrows: As the USS Nimitz and her strike group sprint west through the Singapore Strait to join up with the Carl Vinson in the Arabian Sea, the USS George Washington is the only American carrier on station in the western Pacific.