Chinese aircraft carrier comes closer than ever to Japan

Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — A Chinese aircraft carrier entered an area near Japan’s shores for the first time on Wednesday, leading Tokyo to convey its “serious concerns” to Beijing over China’s increasingly assertive military actions around Japan, officials said. The Chinese carrier Liaoning, accompanied by two destroyers, sailed between Japan’s westernmost island of Yonaguni and nearby Iriomote, entering the country’s co-called “contiguous zone,” the Defense Ministry said. That’s an area of sea beyond a country’s territorial waters in which it can still exercise some control over maritime traffic, reaching up to 24 nautical miles offshore.