American And Chinese Aircraft Carriers Could Cross Paths As Tensions Rise Near Taiwan

China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier strike group is heading toward waters where an American supercarrier is conducting massive military exercises alongside allied warships.

The Chinese carrier and its accompanying destroyers sailed beyond the first island chain, a strategic maritime boundary stretching from Japan through Taiwan to the Philippines, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported Sunday. The deployment could bring Chinese warships into the Philippine Sea, where the USS Theodore Roosevelt is participating in multinational military exercises involving tens of thousands of American and Japanese troops.

“The deployment of China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier strike group to the Philippine Sea would be largely military theater and showmanship,” Steve Hanke, a professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University and former senior economist on President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers, previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “However, it is important because it is intended to send a signal. The Chinese are signaling to the U.S. not to mess around in China’s sphere of influence, or the U.S. will get its clock cleaned.”

“The Chinese for decades have been bold in challenging the U.S. Navy in China’s peripheral waters, so the People’s Liberation Army Navy sending one of its carriers, the Liaoning, close to the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group is, in that sense, not particularly new,” China policy analyst Gordon Chang told the DCNF. “Of course, the presence of opposing carrier strike groups in close proximity is a cause for concern, but in wartime the Chinese would not send their carriers close to ours. This maneuver, therefore, looks like a propaganda exercise, an intimidation move.”

The Chinese formation reached approximately 25 nautical miles southeast of the Philippines’ Balut Island before turning northeast Friday, Philippine news outlet Bilyonaryo News Channel (BNC) reported, citing Philippine Navy monitoring reports.

Philippine naval vessels monitored the Chinese formation as it navigated the Basilan Strait near the southern Philippines. The warships reportedly traveled with their Automatic Identification Systems disabled, complicating efforts to track their movements through civilian maritime monitoring systems, BNC reported, citing a source familiar with the tracking operation.

The Chinese deployment coincides with Keen Sword 27, a massive U.S.-Japan military exercise running from Oct. 19-29 across Japan and its surrounding waters, according to the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Approximately 45,000 Japanese personnel and 11,000 American troops are participating alongside forces from additional allied nations. The exercise involves roughly 260 aircraft and 40 warships, including the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group, according to the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

American naval forces are operating alongside warships from Japan, Australia, Canada and France in the Philippine Sea, according to U.S. Navy imagery released Oct. 22.