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Map Shows Chinese Navy Ships Heading for Possible Russia Meet


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A fleet of Chinese warships were spotted sailing north this week, off the coasts of two U.S. allies, in likely preparations for naval exercises with the Russian navy.

A report published by Japan's Defense Ministry on Monday showed three Chinese navy vessels leaving the East China Sea and entering the Sea of Japan from March 16-17 via the Tsushima Strait. A P-1 patrol aircraft from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force was sent to monitor the movements, according to the ministry's Joint Staff.

The Sea of Japan—known in the two Koreas as the East Sea—is home to commercial and strategic sea lines shared by five nations. Its crowded waters are often the go-to test site for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's ballistic missile program.

Japan Tracks Chinese Navy Warships
Top to bottom: photographs released by Japan’s Defense Ministry on March 18 show the Chinese navy ships Daqing, Kekexilihu and Huainan sailing into the Sea of Japan from March 16-17. Japan Joint Staff

The Russian navy's Pacific Fleet is headquartered in the closed town of Fokino, in the far-eastern Primorsky Krai region on the Peter the Great Gulf in the Sea of Japan.

Accompanying photographs released by Japan showed the distinct silhouettes and hull numbers of the Type 054A frigate Daqing and the Type 903A replenishment ship Kekexilihu. The vessels—belonging to ship classes with the NATO reporting name Jiangkai II and Fuchi, respectively—were the first to arrive, according to Tokyo.

The pair of warships was followed by the Chinese navy ship Huainan, a Type 052D guided-missile destroyer, known in NATO classifications as the Luyang III class. Their reported paths were recreated in the Newsweek graphic below.

All three vessels are assigned to the People's Liberation Army's North Sea Fleet, part of its Northern Theater Command, responsible for operations around the Russian Far East, the Korean Peninsula as well as Japan.

Their arrival in the area was preceded a day earlier by the Chinese electronics surveillance ship Jinxing, according to Japan's Joint Staff. The Type 815A class ship, which NATO calls the Dongdiao class, is occasionally seen on intelligence-gathering operations in Asia, its silhouette marked by the three radomes on its deck.

The variety of ships gathered in the Sea of Japan suggest the Chinese navy could be preparing to team up with its Russian counterpart for planned springtime exercises, as it has done in successive years, although neither country has disclosed related plans.

The Russian and Chinese defense ministries could not be reached for comment.

Chinese Navy Ships Head North
Russia's Pacific Fleet submarines parade off the port city of Vladivostok on the Sea of Japan during Navy Day celebrations on July 30, 2023. Chinese ships were detected entering the Sea of Japan from March... PAVEL KOROLYOV/AFP via Getty Images

The Russian navy, however, is already active in the area. On Tuesday, its Pacific Fleet said the Project 20385 corvette Gremyashchiy, the lead ship in its class, held combat exercises against a simulated group of sea drones, according to a statement carried by the Tass news agency.

Machines guns and anti-aircraft cannons were used, the report said, in maneuvers that followed a mock missile strike conducted one week earlier by another one of Russia's Pacific Fleet warships in the area.

China and Russia last held joint naval exercises in the Sea of Japan in July 2023, with the drills notably expanding from past years as high-level political ties grew closer despite the perceived reputational costs of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

Then in August, for the second year in a row, Japan—a U.S. treaty ally bordering China, Russia and North Korea—expressed alarm at what it called a pointed "show of force" when 11 Chinese and Russian warships sailed through the so-called first island chain by operating near its southern islands in the Pacific.

That month, Igor Tolbatov, a Russian Pacific Fleet captain, said the two neighbors would this year hold "larger-scale drills" involving land-based elements, Tass reported at the time.

The two quasi-allies, and Iran, this week announced the successful conclusion of trilateral naval drills in the Gulf of Oman, known as Maritime Security Belt. The Chinese navy sent two warships and one replenishment tanker to the maneuvers, which were held for the sixth time.

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