China has deployed its first aircraft carrier to participate in military drills being conducted in the Western Pacific Ocean.
People's Liberation Army Navy spokesperson Liang Yang confirmed the deployment of the aircraft carrier Liaoning on Sunday, the BBC reported. Yang said that the ship was part of a navy formation that is headed to the region to participate in scheduled blue-water drills.
However, the official refused to give additional information on the exact location, route and duration of the training exercise. This is the first time that the ship would be deployed far from the mainland. China had announced in November that the Liaoning is ready to engage in combat.
The Liaoning started out as a Soviet-era Admiral Kuznetsov-class carrier that China bought stripped down in 1998. The country then spent nearly two decades refurbishing it and conducting sea trials. The ship has earlier participated in live-fire drills in the Bohai Sea near the Korean Peninsula.
Experts believe that China's successful launching of the Liaoning could be a prelude to the development of domestically built carriers to be deployed by the 2020s. However, they said that the country is still several decades behind the United States in terms of carrier operations.
The deployment of the new carrier comes amid the rising tension in the South China Sea region, prompting concerns from neighboring countries. Taiwan's defense ministry said that it has been closely monitoring the drills after the Liaoning crossed the Miyako Strait between the Japanese islands of Miyako and Okinawa, Reuters reported.
The ministry added that it is monitoring the carrier's return trip to see whether it crosses the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines.
China and Taiwan has an uneasy relationship several decades after the civil war that resulted in the latter declaring itself independent. The former, however, still views the island as part of its territory.
Meanwhile, the Japanese Defense Ministry said that there were no incursions into its territorial waters by the ship.