China‘s secret £7billion warship has been detected in the Pacific Ocean doing military drills.
Aircraft carrier CNS Liaoning was photographed from space by NASA‘s Landsat 8 satellite as it carried out sea trials, according to reports.
Images also show the warship, which cost £7.1bn ($9bn), docking at a port on the Bohai Sea off the east coast of mainland China.
Tokyo accused China in September of entering Japanese waters after Lianoning and two destroyers were spotted sailing in waters where Japan exerts control, according to Reuters.
Beijing argued the aircraft carrier was on a routine training mission in the Pacific which followed international rules and rejected Tokyo’s charges.
Earlier this month, China’s Liaoning and Shandong aircraft carriers conducted dual exercises for the first time in the South China Sea, where Beijing is pursuing territorial claims.
The People’s Liberation Army Navy confirmed on its Weibo account that the vessels journeyed through the Yellow Sea, East China Sea and South China Sea.
It said the Liaoning and Shandong ship formations carried out a dual carrier formation exercise for the first time to “hone and improve” the combat capability of the aircraft carrier formation system.
Meanwhile, China has been seeking alliances in the South Pacific, signing a security agreement with the Solomon Islands and winning over Nauru.
China has been pouring money into infrastructure projects among its South Pacific allies in exchange for political support.
Chinese loans, grants and security cooperation treaties with Pacific island nations have aroused concern in the US, New Zealand, Australia and others over Beijing’s moves to assert military, political and economic control over the region.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te is to visit the island’s allies in the South Pacific in a bid to shore up support for the self-governing nation.
Under pressure from China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory and has threatened to annex it by force, Taiwan has just a dozen formal diplomatic allies.
With the number of its diplomatic allies declining under pressure from China, Taiwan has redoubled efforts to retain support in the South Pacific.
In a further development, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported on Sunday (November 24) that Tokyo and Washington are aiming to draw up joint military plans for a potential emergency over Taiwan.
This would include the deployment of missiles to Japan’s Nansei Islands and to the Philippines, according to the agency’s report, cited by Reuters.
