Map Shows Where US-Allied Navies Intercepted Chinese Warships

At least three Chinese warships on maneuvers in the Pacific this month were intercepted by the U.S.-friendly navies of Taiwan and Japan, according to a witness account and a government report.

Taiwan ADIZ, former Taiwanese service members turned plane and ship spotters, said an unidentified Taiwan navy Kee Lung-class destroyer and the Taiwan coast guard cutter Nantou issued radio challenges to expel two Chinese naval vessels off the island’s east coast on June 4.

The flotilla, comprising the Chinese navy Type 054A or Jiangkai II-class frigates Huanggang and Yangzhou, was traveling southward 31 miles off Wushibi, a headland 7 miles south of Suao naval base in Taiwan’s eastern Yilan county, the group said.

China claims Taiwan as its own despite Taipei’s rejected rejections. Beijing’s fighter jets and warships have begun operating closer and closer to the island’s shores in recent years, in what observers say is an effort to exert psychological pressure and to train for a future war.

Taiwan’s navy sought to expel the pair of adversary ships as they approached the island’s 24-nautical mile contiguous zone, the witnesses said. The Chinese vessels responded by dismissing the existence of the maritime limit, according to a recording shared with Newsweek.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry did not respond to written request for comment. Its coast guard could not be reached for comment after hours.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry, which releases daily reports on Chinese military activity around the island, did not report any naval encounters off its east coast on June 4, although it said at least 10 Chinese navy ships were detected in its surrounding waters.

On June 6-7, two Chinese military helicopters were sighted in the area, according to the ministry’s database.

Separately last week, the Joint Staff Office of Japan’s Defense Ministry named the Chinese frigate Huanggang as one of two warships detected west of the contested Senkaku Islands on June 2, confirming its presence in the area.

Newsweek‘s map shows where Tokyo said the Huanggang and the Type 052C or Luyang II-class guided-missile destroyer Zhengzhou sailed as it traveled from the East China Sea into the Philippine Sea, using the narrow waters east of Yonaguni, Japan’s westernmost inhabited island, about 70 miles from Taiwan.

Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force dispatched the Asagiri-class destroyer JS Yamagiri and a P-1 maritime patrol aircraft to shadow the ships, which returned on June 6 via the Miyako Strait, the Joint Staff said.

Located between the Japanese islands of Miyako and Okinawa, the waterway is among the Chinese navy’s few outlets through the so-called “first island chain” in order to reach the expanse of the Pacific.

The Zhengzhou took the same route there and back in early April while operating as part of another flotilla.

China’s Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the maneuvers.