The Chinese military has dispatched naval vessels led by one of its most advanced warships — the Type 052D destroyer Baotou — through a waterway near Amami Oshima off Kagoshima Prefecture for training in the western Pacific Ocean.
China does not typically publicize such training, and the rare announcement was seen as pushback against Japan, after the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Ikazuchi destroyer conducted a rare transit of the flash point Taiwan Strait on Friday — a move Beijing said was an attempt by Tokyo to “deliberately provoke trouble.”
The Japanese Defense Ministry’s Joint Staff Office said Monday that two vessels, the Baotou and the Type 054A frigate Huanggang, had sailed in the waterway between Amami Oshima and Yokoate Island on Sunday.
