Japan’s Ministry of Defense said on July 21 that a Chinese naval vessel had conducted a machine-gun firing exercise two days earlier inside Japan’s claimed EEZ in the Pacific. It was first time the ministry has publicly announced a case involving a foreign warship conducting a live-fire exercise inside Japan’s EEZ.
According to the Joint Staff, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force detected three Chinese vessels – the Type 055 (Renhai-class) destroyer Anshan, the Type 052D (Luyang III-class) destroyer Kaifeng, and the Type 903A replenishment ship Kekexilihu – and the Russian Navy’s Steregushchiy-class frigate Rezkiy sailing northeast about 330 kilometers southwest of Okinotorishima, Japan’s southernmost territory. The Joint Staff later confirmed that the Kaifeng conducted the machine-gun firing roughly 180 kilometers southwest of the island, squarely inside Japan’s EEZ.
The same four ships had passed southward between Okinawa’s main island and Miyako Island on July 16.
An overview map of Chinese and Russian naval vessel movements. The red arrow indicates the movements of Chinese and Russian naval vessels, while the red dot marks the location where a Chinese guided-missile destroyer conducted a machine-gun firing exercise on July 19. Map via Japan’s Joint Staff Office, Ministry of Defense.
