China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier strike group has sailed beyond the first island chain and could enter the Philippine Sea, where the USS Theodore Roosevelt is taking part in a large multinational exercise, the Daily Caller reports, citing the South China Morning Post.
The American carrier is there for Keen Sword 27, a U.S.-Japan exercise running Oct. 19 to 29 with about 11,000 American troops, 45,000 Japanese personnel, roughly 260 aircraft and 40 warships, according to the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
Some drills are on Yonaguni Island, about 70 miles from Taiwan, USNI News reported. The report describes no new deployment order from Washington or Beijing.
Philippine outlet Bilyonaryo News Channel reported that the Chinese group, the carrier plus three destroyers, reached a point about 25 nautical miles southeast of the Philippines’ Balut Island before turning northeast, reportedly with its Automatic Identification Systems switched off.
Philippine naval vessels monitored the formation as it passed through the Basilan Strait.
China’s navy said Oct. 14 the drills aim to improve combat readiness and are not directed at any country.
Analyst Gordon Chang told the Daily Caller News Foundation the move looks like “a propaganda exercise, an intimidation move.” Johns Hopkins professor Steve Hanke called escalation “extremely unlikely.”
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