‘China spying on tri-nation naval drill’

The 100,000-tonne Stennis joined nine other naval ships including a Japanese helicopter carrier and Indian frigates in seas off the Okinawan island chain. The joint annual naval exercise between America, Japan and India, dubbed Malabar. “There is a Chinese vessel about seven to 

ten miles away,” Captain Gregory C. Huffman, commander of the Stennis said. The show of US naval power comes as Japan and the United States worry China is extending its influence into the Western Pacific with submarines and surface vessels as it pushes territorial claims in the neighbouring South China Sea, expanding and building on islands. 

Blocking China’s unfettered access to the Western Pacific are the 200 islands stretching from Japan’s main islands through the East China Sea to within 100 km (60 miles) of Taiwan. Japan is fortifying those islands with radar stations and anti-ship missile batteries. 

Wary of China’s more assertive maritime role in the region, the U.S. Navy’s Third Fleet plans to send more ships to East Asia to work alongside the Japan-based Seventh Fleet, a U.S. official said on Tuesday. By joining the drill, Japan is deepening alliances it hopes will help counter growing Chinese power. 

For India, the gathering is a chance to put on a show of force close to China’s eastern seaboard and signal its displeasure at increased Chinese naval activity in the Indian Ocean. India sent its naval contingent of four ships on a tour through the South China Sea with stops in the Philippines and Vietnam on their way to the exercise.