Chinese aircraft carrier conducts fighter jet operations in East China Sea

The Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning sails through the Miyako Strait in Okinawa Prefecture on its way to the Pacific in April 2021. DEFENSE MINISTRY handout

by JESSE JOHNSON
May 26, 2025

Japan’s Defense Ministry has announced for the first time that China sent its Liaoning aircraft carrier into the East China Sea, some 200 kilometers from the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands, for practice deploying fighter jets.

The Defense Ministry’s Joint Staff Office said in a statement late Sunday that the Chinese carrier was sailing alongside four destroyers in the waters north of Kuba Island in the Senkaku chain, which is also claimed by Beijing, where the islets are known as the Diaoyu.

The Liaoning was conducting take-off and landing operations involving both fighter jets and helicopters Sunday, the ministry said, adding that Air Self-Defense fighters had been scrambled in response, though there were no reported violations of Japanese airspace.