US Ally Intercepts Chinese Spy Ships Near Coast

A pair of Chinese naval vessels, capable of collecting intelligence, were spotted operating near Japan, a key United States treaty ally in the Western Pacific Ocean, earlier this week.

Newsweek has reached out to the Chinese Defense Ministry for comment by email.

Why It Matters

Under a U.S. maritime containment strategy, Japan, which monitors the Chinese navy in its surrounding waters, forms the First Island Chain along with Taiwan and the Philippines, seeking to restrict China’s military access to the wider Pacific Ocean using U.S.-aligned territories.

In its report on Chinese military power, the Pentagon noted that China, which has the largest navy in the world by hull count, has begun sending its fleet of intelligence collection ships beyond the First Island Chain outside the East and South China Seas to monitor military drills.

The deployment of the two Chinese spy ships also coincides with a joint U.S.-Philippines war game conducted in the Southeast Asian archipelagic country from April 21 to Friday.

What To Know

The Japanese Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday that the Chinese Type 815A spy ship CNS Yuhengxing, which has the hull number 798, sailed from the Philippine Sea to the East China Sea via the Miyako Strait—located in Japan’s southwestern waters—on Sunday.

The Yuhengxing commenced its deployment in the Philippine Sea on April 12, when it was tracked passing through the waters between two of Japan’s southwestern islands, Yokoate-jima and Amami Oshima, according to a map provided by the Japanese Defense Ministry.

Meanwhile, the CNS Kaiyangxing, which is a sister ship of the Yuhengxing with the hull number 796, sailed northward through the waterway between Taiwan and Japan’s island of Yonaguni from Sunday to Monday, heading from the Philippine Sea to the East China Sea.

The Kaiyangxing had been operating in the Philippine Sea since March 31, after transiting southeastward in the Miyako Strait, a map released by the Japanese Defense Ministry shows.

The Japanese navy was dispatched to monitor the Chinese spy ships, Tokyo’s defense ministry added, though the exact missions of the Yuhengxing and the Kaiyangxing remain unclear.

While China deployed its spy ships in the Philippine Sea, USS Nimitz, a U.S. aircraft carrier, was also operating in the region until it entered the South China Sea last Saturday, providing “presence and combat-ready forces to the theater,” the U.S. Seventh Fleet told Newsweek.

What People Are Saying

Japan’s defense white paper 2024 said: “China has been rapidly building up military capabilities while intensifying its activities in the East China Sea, where the waters surrounding the Senkaku Islands are, as well as in the Pacific.”

The Senkaku Islands are an islet group in the East China Sea, ruled by Japan but claimed by China as the Diaoyu Islands.

Senior Colonel Wu Qian, spokesperson for the Chinese Defense Ministry, said: “Japan has been closely tracking, monitoring and harassing operations of Chinese vessels and aircraft, which has endangered the safety of the Chinese vessels and aircraft, and can easily trigger incidents at sea or in the air.”

What Happens Next

China continues to deploy its fleet of warships to waters beyond the First Island Chain, aiming to further expand its military reach and assert its presence in the Indo-Pacific region.