PLA carrier Liaoning flies fighters in waters east of Taiwan, Japan's military says

Japan's Joint Staff said on Wednesday, 14 October 2026, that the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy aircraft carrier Liaoning sailed between Okinawa's main island and Miyako Island into the Pacific with three destroyers, and then launched and recovered carrier-based fighters in waters about 250 km south of Ishigaki Island. That area lies in the Philippine Sea east of Taiwan, and Japan's Air Self-Defense Force scrambled fighters in response.

The report gives the first outside account of where the group went after Beijing announced earlier the same day that the Liaoning was heading to the Western Pacific for training. China's defence ministry described the deployment as routine training under its annual plan, said it complied with international law and was not aimed at any country, and did not say where the ships would operate or for how long.

According to the Joint Staff, the Maritime Self-Defense Force first spotted the group at about 11 am Japan time on Tuesday, 13 October, roughly 390 km southwest of the Danjo Islands in Nagasaki Prefecture and steaming south. Alongside the carrier, hull number 16, were two Renhai-class guided-missile destroyers, hull numbers 103 and 104, and a Luyang III-class guided-missile destroyer, hull number 123.

Japan watched the transit with the destroyer Yugiri from the 1st Surface Unit at Yokosuka, a P-1 patrol aircraft from Fleet Air Wing 4 at Atsugi and a P-3C from Fleet Air Wing 5 at Naha. The air force scramble was ordered specifically in response to the fighter launches from the carrier deck, the release said.

Drones and patrol aircraft on the same day

A second Joint Staff release covering the same Wednesday listed more Chinese air activity around the southwestern islands. In the morning, a presumed Chinese drone flew in from the East China Sea and passed between Yonaguni Island and Taiwan into the Pacific. In the afternoon, a Y-9 intelligence-gathering aircraft flew a round trip from southwest of the Danjo Islands to northwest of Okinawa's main island, and a WZ-7 reconnaissance drone flew over the East China Sea before both returned toward the mainland. Japan again scrambled fighters.

This is the Liaoning's second Western Pacific deployment of the year. During its May to June cruise, which lasted more than a month, Japan counted about 170 carrier aircraft launches and landings in the Pacific between 26 and 28 May, and the group at one point sailed to about 590 km southwest of Miyako Island, the Liberty Times recalled.

The timing has drawn attention in Taiwan and Japan because the large US-Japan Keen Sword 27 exercise runs from 19 to 29 October across Japan's southwestern island chain. For the first time, US forces plan to deploy the NMESIS shore-based anti-ship missile system and the MADIS air defence system on Yonaguni, about 110 km from Taiwan, and carrier training usually lasts several weeks, so the two activities may overlap.

Past cruises have produced friction. Last December, while the Liaoning operated in international waters southeast of Okinawa, Japan said Chinese carrier aircraft twice locked their radars onto Self-Defense Force planes. During the June cruise, Beijing accused Japanese forces of dangerous close-in surveillance, a charge the Joint Staff rejected.

For Taiwan, the location matters more than the announcement. Flight operations about 250 km south of Ishigaki put a Chinese carrier air wing on the island's eastern, Pacific-facing flank, well away from the Taiwan Strait where most of Beijing's daily military pressure is concentrated, and close to the sea routes that Keen Sword is rehearsing to defend.