Tokyo has rejected Beijing’s accusations that the Japanese military harassed a Chinese aircraft carrier strike group during 40 days of exercises in “distant waters” of the Pacific.
The Chinese navy said earlier this week that Japanese ships and aircraft “repeatedly engaged in close-range tracking, surveillance, harassment, and provocation.”
China said a formation led by its aircraft carrier Liaoning had operated in areas including the South China Sea and the Western Pacific for “multiple rounds of day-and-night offensive and defensive exercise”.
The training involved ships and aircraft and tested “system-based operational capabilities in distant waters”, the Chinese navy said on its WeChat account.
It added the Liaoning formation “maintained a high state of alert throughout, launching carrier-based aircraft for combat sorties… and steadily responding to the dangerous actions of the Japanese side”.
Japan’s Joint Staff said late Wednesday on X that the claims were “not factual”.
“The Ministry of Defence and
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