ON PATROL The Liaoning, China’s first and only aircraft carrier, leads five othern Chinese warships in patrolling the South China Sea near Taiwan and Japan. —AFP
BEIJING—The Chinese military, in a move analysts described as a challenge to President-elect Donald J. Trump’s strident criticism of China, has deployed an aircraft carrier to patrol the contested South China Sea, officials said on Tuesday.
The Liaoning, China’s first and only aircraft carrier, was spotted leading five other Chinese warships this week in patrols near the coasts of Taiwan and Japan.
China claims the South China Sea as its own despite objections from neighboring countries and the United States.
Chinese military experts called the deployment of the Liaoning a long-overdue challenge to American military dominance in the Pacific.
Testing Trump
Several said the move appeared aimed at testing Trump, who has antagonized Beijing with acerbic words and actions on issues like Taiwan, trade and North Korea.
“The message is: ‘If you test our bottom line, we’ll play that game, too,’” said Ni Lexiong, a naval expert at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law.
The decision by Beijing to deploy the carrier group seemed likely to complicate an increasingly fractious relationship between China and the United States.
Nowhere are those tensions more on display than in the South China Sea, where American forces have resisted China’s efforts to build artificial islands and military outposts as part of its efforts to assert greater control over the sea, a major commercial waterway.
In the weeks since Trump’s election, Beijing has increased pressure on the United States, placing weapons on disputed islands and seizing an underwater US Navy drone from international waters.
One-China principle
Chinese officials appear to be emboldened by Trump’s pledge to focus on domestic issues and his ambivalence toward the one-China principle, an understanding between the United States and China that has underpinned relations for decades.
“The mission is to signal to neighbors that Beijing will set the security table in East Asian waters, and that not even President Donald Trump can reverse that trend,” Patrick M. Cronin, a senior director at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think tank, said in an e-mail.
Chinese officials played down the significance of the Liaoning’s journey, saying the ships were taking part in annual training exercises.
“The Liaoning aircraft carrier is entitled to the freedom of navigation and overflight under international law,” Hua Chunying, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a news conference on Monday.
“We hope that all parties will respect this,” he added.
Freedom of navigation
The United States said China had the right to sail in international waters.
US Department of State spokesperson Mark Toner said on Tuesday that the United States recognized lawful uses of the sea, and the same rights applied to the United States, China and other nations.
“As we often make the case with our own naval vessels sailing … in those same waters, it’s freedom of navigation,” he said.
Officials in Taiwan and Japan said the warships were spotted patrolling their coasts over the past several days.
Taiwanese officials said the Liaoning came within 167.4 kilometers of the southern tip of the island before entering the South China Sea.
Japanese officials said the ships were seen near the shores of Okinawa, in the Pacific Ocean.
On Wednesday, a senior Taiwanese military officer reported that the Liaoning had arrived at a naval base on the southern Chinese province of Hainan.
“The Liaoning aircraft carrier has reached the Hainan military base. We will continue to monitor its developments,” the officer told Reuters, on condition of anonymity.
Refurbished vessel
Many people in China cheered the deployment of the Liaoning, a discarded vessel bought from Ukraine in 1998 and refurbished by the Chinese Navy.
While the Liaoning lacks the capabilities of its American counterparts, it is a symbol of national pride for the government, which is in the midst of an effort to vastly upgrade its military capacity to meet its ambition of projecting strength far from Beijing.
Officials have announced plans for a second aircraft carrier and other high-tech weapons.
Some commentators in China seized the moment to call on officials to send the Liaoning closer to American shores.
“Aircraft carriers are strategic tools which should be used to show China’s strength to the world and shape the outside world’s attitude toward China,” an editorial in Global Times, a state-run newspaper that often adopts a nationalistic tone, said on Sunday.
“As China’s only aircraft carrier fleet now, it should have the ability and courage to sail further,” it added.
The US Department of Defense declined to directly address China’s movements in the South China Sea.
“We continue to observe a range of ongoing Chinese military activity in the region,”
Cmdr. Gary Ross, a spokesperson for the Pentagon, said in a statement on Tuesday.
“The United States recognizes the rights, freedoms and lawful uses of the sea and airspace guaranteed to all countries in accordance with international law,” he added.
—REPORTS FROM NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE AND THE WIRES