The previous month, Tokyo had also scrambled fighter jets after a Chinese military aircraft “violated” its airspace.
The Japanese government reported Wednesday that Chinese warships, including an aircraft carrier, sailed through waters between Japanese islands near Taiwan.
“This is the first time that it has been confirmed that an aircraft carrier belonging to the Chinese Navy has sailed in the waters between (the islands of) Yonaguni and Iriomote,” the Japanese Defense Ministry’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
The ministry said that “the aircraft carrier ‘Liaoning’ and two guided-missile destroyers” were detected in the southern Okinawa region, between the islands of Yonaguni and Iriomote, thus entering “contiguous waters, an area that borders Japan’s territorial maritime zone.”
Contiguous waters are a 22 km (12 nautical miles) strip extending beyond Japanese territorial waters.
The incursion comes after Japan strongly condemned the entry of a Chinese navy ship into its territorial waters off southern islands earlier this month.
The previous month, Tokyo had also scrambled fighter jets after a Chinese military aircraft “violated” its airspace.
Territorial claims
China’s growing economic and military influence in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as its territorial claims, particularly over Taiwan, which it considers one of its provinces, are of concern to the United States and its allies.
Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea, an area through which billions of dollars of trade pass each year, despite a 2016 ruling by the International Court of Justice that its claims have no legal basis.
Japan, which has maintained a pacifist policy for decades, has increased its defense spending, building up “counter-strike” capabilities and easing rules on arms exports.
Along with the United States, Australia and India, Japan is part of the Quad alliance, a group seen as a bulwark against China.
In the past, there have been incidents between Japanese and Chinese ships in disputed areas, including the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, also known as the Diaoyu Islands by Beijing.
The island chain has also been the scene of clashes between Japanese coast guard vessels and Chinese fishing boats.
