Longtime U.S. treaty ally Japan said it dispatched naval vessels to its northern and southwestern seas this week to monitor Chinese and Russian military ships on maneuvers in the Western Pacific Ocean.
A June 14 report and another on Monday, both released by the Joint Staff Office within Japan's Defense Ministry, pinpointed the waterways used by the foreign navy warships the previous day.
Images included in the now routine disclosures showed the silhouettes and hull numbers of the Pribaltika, the only Balzam-class intelligence ship still in service with the Russian navy, as well as the Chinese navy's Luyang III-class destroyer Zibo and the Fuchi-class fleet oiler Gaoyouhu.
The move was part of a longstanding practice by Tokyo to announce its detection of foreign and especially adversary warplanes and ships near its expansive archipelagic territory, which shares long sea borders with Russia, North Korea and China.
Newsweek's map, built on the Japanese government's geospatial data, shows the Pribaltika sailing on June 13 into the Sea of Okhotsk via La Perouse Strait, north of the Japanese main island of Hokkaido. Japan calls it to the Soya Strait.
The 4,900-ton Soviet-era spy ship is assigned to Russia's Pacific Fleet, which is headquartered in the closed town of Fokino on the Peter the Great Gulf in the Sea of Japan. The Sea of Okhotsk, meanwhile, is separated from the North Pacific Ocean by the Moscow-held Kuril Islands, the ownership of which is disputed by Tokyo.
Japan's Joint Staff said the 200-ton Hayabusa-class patrol boat JS Wakataka and a P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft were sent to shadow to the Russian signals intelligence-collection vessel, which Russia classifies as a Project 1826 ship.
The Russian Defense Ministry could not be reached for comment after hours.
On Sunday, Japan's Maritime Self-Defense sent another P-3C anti-submarine plane and the 570-ton Sugashima-class minesweeper JS Shishijima to the watch the 7,500-ton guided-missile destroyer Zibo and the 23,000-ton replenishment vessel Gaoyouhu, both of which are in service with the Chinese military's East Sea Fleet based in the port city of Ningbo.
The ships—classified by China as a Type 052D and a Type 903A, respectively—sailed from the East China Sea into the Western Pacific via the strategic Miyako Strait, between the Japanese islands of Miyako and Okinawa, which hosts two-thirds of the 54,000 or so U.S. military personnel stationed in Japan.
China's Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the maneuvers.
Later on Monday, the ministry announced that the Zibo and the Gaoyouhu had departed eastern China and were bound for the Pacific island nation of Tonga to mark the Tongan navy's 50th anniversary.
"On behalf of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, it will be present at the maritime fleet review, land parade, welcome reception, military music performance and other activities held by Tonga, together with the navies from some Asian, European and Oceanian countries," the ministry said of the Zibo's trip.
About the writer
John Feng is Newsweek's contributing editor for Asia based in Taichung, Taiwan. His focus is on East Asian politics. He ... Read more
