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China’s most advanced amphibious assault ship spotted near Japanese waters

  • Deployment of PLA’s Type 075 warship signals Beijing’s ability to break through potential Western naval containment, analysts say

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China’s Type 075 amphibious assault vessel was spotted near the first island chain in the Pacific Ocean in what one analyst described as “routine activity”. Photo: Weibo
Seong Hyeon Choiin Hong KongandSylvie Zhuangin Beijing

China’s most advanced amphibious assault vessel has been spotted in the western Pacific for the first time in a year – an appearance that analysts said was aimed at showing the country’s ability to break through US-led strategic containment.

Japan’s Joint Staff Office said on Monday that two Chinese naval vessels – a Type 075 Yushen-class amphibious assault ship and a Type 052D Luyang-class guided missile destroyer – were spotted about 120km (75 miles) northeast of the Miyako Islands in Okinawa prefecture on Saturday.

The two ships sailed southeast between the main islands of Miyako and Okinawa towards the Pacific Ocean, according to the office.

“The Ministry of Defence and the Self-Defence Forces carried out warning surveillance and information gathering by the Maritime Self-Defence Force’s 8th Escort Squadron ‘Kirisame’,” the office said.

It’s been more than a year since a Type 075 was last spotted in the western Pacific near the first island chain, a series of archipelagos running from the Japanese mainland through Taiwan and the Philippines off mainland Asia.

The deployments are intended to “assert Beijing’s freedom of navigation through these waters, and symbolically to demonstrate its ability to break past the supposed US-led strategic containment within this chain,” said Collin Koh, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

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