Two Type 055 large destroyers, the Nanchang and the Lhasa, are moored at a naval port in 2021. File photo: Courtesy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy

 
Over the past month, the Japanese Defense Ministry has posted more than a dozen reports on Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) naval activities around the island country, as the last ship in the PLA Navy task force led by the Type 055 large destroyer Lhasa reportedly returned to the East China Sea on Tuesday, wrapping up its voyage that went round Japan almost entirely.

The growing capabilities of the PLA Navy will mean that such activities become routine, and their significance goes beyond just sending Japan warnings amid its right-wing provocations, as the PLA Navy aims to become a blue-water navy that will operate farther in distant waters to safeguard China's sovereignty, security and development interests, experts said on Wednesday.

The PLA Navy Type 815 electronic surveillance ship with the hull number 794 sailed from the Pacific Ocean through the Miyako Strait into the East China Sea on Tuesday, Japan's Ministry of Defense Joint Staff said in a press release on the day.

The ship is a part of a four-ship flotilla which also includes the Type 055 large destroyer Lhasa, the Type 052D destroyer Chengdu and the Type 903A replenishment ship Dongpinghu, which sailed through the Tsushima Strait from the East China Sea on June 12. The other three ships returned to the East China Sea on June 29, according to a separate Japanese press release on June 30. It means that the flotilla circumnavigated almost the entirety of Japan in its voyage.

Japan has been reporting intensified PLA warship activities around it over the past month, posting some 15 reports on different Chinese warships' transits of strategic sea lanes near Japan including the Miyako Strait, Tsushima Strait, Osumi Strait, Tsugaru Strait and Soya Strait. In May, it also reported intensive training activities of the aircraft carrier Liaoning outside of the Miyako Strait.

Waters around Japan should not even be considered far sea to China as they are on China's doorstep, and circumnavigating Japan has never been the PLA Navy's ultimate goal, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Japan has been hyping PLA naval activities to raise rhetoric on the "China threat" theory, but it is Japan that has been repeatedly provoking China over Taiwan and other questions in the first place amid its right-wing, militaristic ambitions, analysts said.

Chinese warships' activities are more than about deterring Japan, as China is aiming to build a blue-water navy that goes farther into distant waters for alert patrols, exercises and missions to safeguard China's sovereignty, security and development interests, Song said, noting that Japan only feels it is special because of its location, as Chinese vessels that want to enter the Pacific Ocean need to make transits through these straits near Japan.

The PLA Navy's first Type 055 large destroyer, the Nanchang, led a Chinese-Russian joint naval flotilla and circumnavigated Japan in a joint maritime patrol in October 2021. Now the second Type 055, the Lhasa, circumnavigated Japan in June. Two additional Type 055s, the Anshan and the Wuxi, have also entered service with the PLA North Sea Fleet, the PLA Navy announced in April.

The Anshan and the Wuxi are expected to achieve operational capability within 2022. With more powerful Type 055s active, the PLA Navy's circumnavigations around Japan could become routine, and Japan should get used to it, observers said.