Nope still within the second island chain not the wide open west pacific ocean which most likely the venue of the recent exercise I am holding my breath now
Last time around they are only dipping their toe in west pacific
Chinese warship the Liaoning sails through Miyako Strait on way to Pacific Ocean for drills
- Fuel supply ship and other naval vessels seen accompanying the aircraft carrier
- Analysts expect navy to carry out exercises ‘to improve its fighting power and operations in areas it is not familiar with’
During its return voyage – which took place when the self-ruled island’s President Tsai Ing-wen was visiting allies in Latin America – the Liaoning sailed through the Taiwan Strait, completing a circle around the island and prompting the Taiwanese military to scramble jets and send navy ships to “surveil and control” its passage back to Qingdao.
Analysts said the latest Chinese voyage through the Miyako Strait was part of training to improve combat readiness.
Collin Koh, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said the strait was “one of the quickest routes into the open western Pacific Ocean, where the PLA is expected to wage combat operations – especially in the Philippine Sea – in the event of a counter-intervention against American forces deployed from Guam in particular”.
“Such manoeuvres are aimed at familiarising the PLA Navy units with the operating environment as part of peacetime combat preparedness,” he said.
Song Zhongping, a former member of the People’s Liberation Army’s Second Artillery Corps, said it was not unusual for the Liaoning to carry out training in the western Pacific Ocean.
“Training cannot be done only at home. They need to strengthen combat abilities and carry out missions further afield – that’s crucial for an aircraft carrier,” he said. “Training is needed to improve its fighting power and operations in areas it is not familiar with.”
The training was expected to last for about two weeks, according to Zhou Chenming, a military expert in Beijing.
The Chinese aircraft carrier strike group could also be seeking to gain further operational experience, according to Ryo Hinata-Yamaguchi, a visiting professor at Pusan National University in South Korea.
“It could be holding some kind of naval exercises in or near the Pacific Ocean while also conducting their own freedom of navigation operations to test Japan and the US’ strategic and tactical reactions,” Ryo said.
“China’s objective is to achieve its anti-access and area denial strategy in the first and second island chains to gain access to the Pacific Ocean while also challenging the US’ air and naval supremacy in the Indo-Pacific – and also Japan’s growing air and naval capabilities,” he said.
