China warns Japan with a naval exercise in the Osumi Strait

By Boyko Nikolov

BEIJING, BM, ($1=6.39 Yuans) – Liu Xuanzun, a reporter for the state-run Chinese media Global Times, wrote that the Chinese navy has significantly improved its capabilities for military operations in the far sea and that the exercise, which is taking place in the Pacific, is a warning to Japan. A flotilla of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) navy began an exercise this Monday, May 31, crossing the Osumi Strait.

Beijing interprets Japan’s actions as hostile and against China’s interests. Liu Xuanzun talks about some exercises in which the Land of the Rising Sun participates with allies and differences on political issues, including the Taiwan issue.

Beijing has sent a flotilla of missile destroyers, frigates armed with guided missiles, and a complex supply ship for China’s naval exercise in the Pacific. The Japanese military spotted three Chinese ships crossing the Osumi Strait on Tuesday. Since the beginning of 2021, we remind you that China has conducted three naval exercises, albeit small, but all around different straits near Japan.

There is no information from Japan that the Chinese navy has violated the country’s territorial integrity. All the exercises carried out by Beijing this year have been in international waters. The same conditions apply to airspace and compliance with established rules.

Japan also responded with an exercise

Tokyo also launched a naval exercise in the waters east of Okinawa last Sunday (May 30) and the available US, French, and Australian naval warships in the area. Chinese media report that Japan has included a small air force in addition to ships, such as helicopters, which landed on the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan.

Beijing sees these actions in Tokyo as a political move and hostility to China because, with such actions, Japan is trying to limit the influence that China is trying to impose on the Diaoyu Islands and Taiwan. Beijing says Japan participated in the exercise with four vessels, which was to demonstrate strength and strengthen Japan’s naval capability.

“But if a country shows malicious intentions against China, it is also natural that the Chinese military would see it as an imaginary opponent in exercises,” says Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and television reporter.

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