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Chinese carrier
steams toward South China Sea
Reuters, BEIJING
China sent its sole aircraft carrier on a training mission into the South China
Sea yesterday amid maritime disputes with the Philippines and other neighbors,
and tension over its plan to set up an airspace defense zone over waters
disputed with Taiwan and Japan.
The Liaoning, bought used from Ukraine and refurbished in China, has conducted
more than 100 exercises and experiments since it was commissioned last year, but
this is the first time it has been sent to the South China Sea.
The Liaoning left port from the northern city of Qingdao accompanied by two
destroyers and two frigates, the Chinese Navy said on an official news Web site.
While there, it will carry out ¡§scientific research, tests and military drills,¡¨
the report said.
¡§This is the first time since the Liaoning entered service that it has carried
out long-term drills on the high seas,¡¨ it added.
The timing of the drills is bound to raise eyebrows with its neighbors, given
the overlapping maritime disputes. China has lodged formal protests with the US
and Japan after both criticized its plan to impose new rules on airspace over
disputed waters in the East China Sea.
Yesterday, Australia said it had summoned China¡¦s ambassador to express concern
over its imposition of the air defense identification zone.
China also claims almost the entire oil and gas-rich South China Sea,
conflicting with claims from Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and
Vietnam.
That dispute is one of the region¡¦s biggest flashpoints amid China¡¦s military
buildup and the US strategic ¡§pivot¡¨ to Asia.
Though considered decades behind US technology, the Liao-ning represents the
Chinese navy¡¦s blue-water ambitions and has been the focus of a campaign to stir
patriotism.
Rommel Banlaoi, executive director of the Philippine Institute for Peace,
Violence and Terrorism Research, said he thought the Liaoning was still years
away from representing a real threat.
¡§China is still developing its own model of carrier operations and its
technology is [far] behind the United States,¡¨ he said.
Previously reported training exercises have mostly been in the Yellow Sea,
between China and the Korean Peninsula.
¡§Obviously the Chinese authorities have been adopting a series of measures to
strengthen their claim on the sovereignty of the disputed territories,¡¨ said
Joseph Cheng (¾G¦tºÓ), a political science professor at City University of Hong
Kong.
China¡¦s navy said the mission was routine, adding that the Liao-ning was still
in a testing phase.
¡§This test visit to the South China Sea is part of normal arrangements for
testing and training for the Liaoning,¡¨ it said.
¡§Long cross-sea voyages are a necessary stage of experimentation and training to
test equipment and troops under continuous work, and different hydrological and
meteorological conditions,¡¨ it added.
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