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By John Feng
China Editor
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China’s military released footage this week showing a close encounter between a Chinese aircraft carrier group and a Japanese warship during a recent deployment in the Western Pacific Ocean.
Encounters in international waters between Chinese and Japanese forces have become commonplace as China’s rapidly expanding navy conducts more frequent exercises beyond its coastal waters and what U.S. defense planners call the first island chain.
The Chinese military said Japanese military ships and planes “repeatedly conducted close-in tracking, surveillance, harassment and provocations” during the Liaoning carrier group’s deployment of more than 40 days in the South China Sea and the Philippine Sea.
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Elements of the Chinese carrier group handled Japan’s “dangerous actions” professionally, a statement said.
The Japanese Defense Ministry's told Newsweek that claims about interference or provocation against Chinese naval vessels "are not true."
Japan's Self-Defense Forces "will continue to conduct vigilant monitoring and surveillance of the waters and airspace surrounding Japan in a professional and steady manner, while maintaining a calm and resolute posture and placing the highest priority on safety," a spokesperson said.
The incident comes amid renewed tensions between Beijing and Tokyo over the Japanese military’s own force modernization efforts with U.S. support, which the Chinese government has used to warn about a return to Japan’s imperial-era militarism.
The Soviet-built Liaoning is China’s first operational aircraft carrier and has been in service since 2012.
China published the undated video on Monday as the Liaoning concluded its “far-seas combat training” and returned to its home port of Qingdao in the East China Sea.
Footage carried by China’s state media showed elements of the Liaoning carrier group being shadowed by the Japanese destroyer JS Asahi, while Japanese navy patrol planes were also shown flying overhead.
The Joint Staff Office said its forces monitored the first elements of the Chinese carrier group as they crossed into the Philippine Sea in mid-May.
The Liaoning and its escorts joined in the area the following week, according to a separate press release.
In early June, another Joint Staff report said the Liaoning strike group had conducted dozens of carrier jet and helicopter operations in the waters east of the Philippines.
On Monday, the office confirmed that the Japanese destroyer Asahi had been among the units monitoring the Liaoning as it returned to the East China Sea on June 20.
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A separate report by the state-owned China Daily newspaper, republished on the official English-language news portal of the Chinese armed forced, included a photograph of a separate encounter between a Chinese fighter jet and a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol plane.
A photo caption said: “[A] J-15 fighter jet monitors a U.S. anti-submarine patrol aircraft after taking off from the aircraft carrier Liaoning.”
No date was given for the encounter, and it wasn’t mentioned in the Chinese military press releases.
The Hawaii-based U.S. Pacific Command did not immediately reply to an emailed request for comment after hours.
The Liaoning’s deployment was its first in wider Pacific waters since December. One year ago, China deployed the Liaoning and the Shandong, its second operational aircraft carrier, together in the Philippine Sea.
The Chinese military said the most recent deployment included realistic combat exercises, carrier aircraft flight drills and search and rescue training.
“This training is a routine exercise conducted by the Chinese navy in accordance with its annual plan, aimed at continuously improving its capability to fulfill its missions,” the Chinese navy said.
The training “complies with relevant international law and practice and is not aimed at any specific country or objective,” it said.
Update 6/25/26, 1:43 a.m. ET: Updated with a statement by Japan's Defense Ministry.
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