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"Chinese aircraft carriers are not homebodies." Every time they go to the distant sea for training, their every move attracts much attention from the outside world. This time, the protagonist that the American media focused on is China's first domestically-produced aircraft carrier.ShandongThe reason for the attention this time is that "within less than a month, the Shandong ship went to the Western Pacific Ocean for training twice." According to the US media, this time it broke the new record of the interval between dispatches: 25 days.

The U.S. Naval Institute website quoted the Joint Staff Office of the Japanese Ministry of Defense on the 12th as saying that on the same day, the Shandong fleet, China's first domestically-produced aircraft carrier, appeared in the "Philippine Sea" 420 kilometers south of Miyako Island, accompanied by ships including the Type 055 guided missile destroyer Yan'an, the Type 052D guided missile destroyer Zhanjiang, and the Type 054A guided missile frigate Yuncheng. According to U.S. media, a map released by the Japanese Ministry of Defense shows that the location is roughly near the Shandong's previous deployment site in the "Philippine Sea."

On the 12th, the U.S. "Newsweek" exaggerated that the Shandong aircraft carrier formation's far sea training this time should be the shortest interval between two trainings in recent years, only 25 days.

The Shandong aircraft carrier formation had previously conducted training in the waters of the Western Pacific in mid-to-late July. At that time, commercial satellite images showed that the Shandong had appeared in waters near the Philippines. Some analysts believed that "China's first dispatch of an aircraft carrier to the waters near the Philippines was intended as a deterrent."

In response, Zhang Xiaogang, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, said that the Shandong fleet's trip to the relevant waters for actual combat training was an annual routine arrangement that complies with international law and international practice and is not aimed at any specific target. "In the future, the Chinese Navy will regularly organize similar exercises to continuously improve the combat capability of the aircraft carrier fleet system."

There is another detail in the US media reports that is worth noting.

The U.S. Naval Institute website intentionally highlighted in its report that the Shandong ship's exercise area this time was "in the Philippine Sea" and "near the area of ​​last month's exercise." Lao Liu believes that it is difficult to confirm whether it is in the so-called "near the last exercise area" from the location map released by the Japanese Ministry of Defense.

From this point of view, the US media is suspected of attracting attention and "scamming".

Some analysts believe that if Chinese naval vessels, including the Shandong aircraft carrier, pass through the Bashi Channel to relevant waters for long-distance training, they will naturally pass through the so-called "Philippine Sea", but the Philippine Sea is not the Philippines' sea. The Chinese ships' exercises in the relevant waters are completely legal and compliant, and foreign media have no excuse to interfere.

US media also reported that the Shandong ship was training again in the Western Pacific.PentagonThe order given to the USS Lincoln to speed up its journey to the Middle East last weekend was linked to this.

However, it should be noted that the Chinese aircraft carrier is conducting exercises at China's doorstep, while the US aircraft carrier has traveled thousands of miles to cruise around China and recently accelerated to the Middle East. The US media deliberately turned a blind eye to the "brushstroke" between the two sides, and instead emphasized that the frequency of Chinese aircraft carrier sorties has reached a new high. Some people believe that if the US and Japanese media want to reduce the hype about China's aircraft carrier's far sea training, it is necessary to further increase the frequency of far sea training and let them gradually learn to adapt.

Privy Council No. 10/Lao Liu is really busy