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China urged to fast-track carrier fleet upgrades as Japan boosts strike power
A potential gap that China’s carrier strike groups ‘need to address is the limited number of stealth fighters’, former PLA Navy officer says
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Alcott Weiin BeijingPublished: 10:00pm, 7 Jun 2026China should speed up aircraft carrier group upgrades and boost their combat capabilities to counter Japan’s growing defence strength amid mounting tensions, military experts have said.
This comes as Tokyo ramps up its defence posture with long-range anti-ship missiles and deployments on Japanese islands near Taiwan, putting Beijing on high alert. A recent simulated attack also highlighted the potential threat.
As tensions escalated in December over the Japanese prime minister’s comments on Taiwan, the PLA Navy’s Liaoning aircraft carrier strike group steered an unusual course through waters east of Japan. In response, Japan scrambled a dozen F-2 fighter jets armed with a total of 64 ASM-2 anti-ship missiles.
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The unprecedented scale of the deployment was widely interpreted as a saturation-attack drill using the Liaoning fleet as the hypothetical adversary.
02:49China reveals radio communications heard before mid-air stand-off with Japanese fighters
Fu Qianshao, a military expert and former PLA Navy officer, highlighted the strategic gravity of these exercises.
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