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Two Advances for Chinese Navy after Monthlong Aircraft Carrier Voyage near
Japan, Taiwan

Ralph Jennings

   TAIPEI, TAIWAN - China's navy just learned from a monthlong aircraft
   carrier training mission how to keep troops safe from COVID-19 and what
   it would be like to spar with Japan or Taiwan, analysts believe.

   The Liaoning aircraft carrier returned to port in eastern China April
   30 after passing through western Pacific waters near Taiwan and Japan
   -- putting both on alert due to their political differences with
   Beijing. Though hardly a first for the carrier, the rising maritime
   power sent it out for longer this year for more rigorous training.

   The People's Liberation Army Navy probably did "intensive" logistics
   and medical support work, with civilian help, to keep its flotilla
   disease free during the global COVID-19 pandemic, said Andrew Yang,
   secretary-general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies
   think tank in Taiwan.

   Naval vessels from Taiwan, the United States and three European
   countries have been infected this year. The coronavirus that causes
   COVI9-19 had spread on board because multiple people were stationed
   there in close quarters.

   A disease-free voyage means "they can actually cope with very unique
   and unusual conditions and at the same time they can still make
   warships operational," Yang said.

   More longer-term, China's navy took a lesson over the past month in
   what it would be like to fight Japan, Taiwan or countries that claim
   the adjacent South China Sea, said Derek Grossman, senior defense
   analyst with RAND Corp. research institution. China has not fought a
   war since the 1979 conflict with Vietnam, Grossman noted.

   "The best place to prepare for realistic combat conditions is in the
   place where you're going to actually do it, and I think that's a really
   important aspect that tends to get lost," he said.

   China's official Xinhua News Agency described the mission as annual
   with "trans-theater training in the far seas" this year. Itfeatured
   a"long duration, many subjects, high intensity and complicated air and
   sea situations," Xinhua said.

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