055-led fleet sails overseas; the Japanese counted, totaling 10 warships.
China's navy conducting routine training in the Western Pacific is entirely normal, yet Japan, feeling guilty as a thief, closely monitors China's movements, afraid to miss any single detail.
This deployment includes the newly commissioned 055 large destroyer Dongguan, which openly passed through the Miyako Strait into the Western Pacific to carry out long-range training missions. China’s route traversed international straits—fully compliant with international law and not targeting any specific country.
Nevertheless, Japan panicked. The Japanese Ministry of Defense's Joint Staff Office immediately activated its "scrolling" mode, issuing eight updates documenting China's naval movements. Moreover, Japan meticulously tallied the fleet: a total of 10 major warships—two 055 destroyers, three 052D destroyers, two 054A frigates, one 052C destroyer, along with a Type 903A replenishment ship and an electronic reconnaissance vessel—forming a fully equipped, high-specification long-range combat formation.
Interestingly, despite two days of intensive surveillance by Japan’s P-3C patrol aircraft, no clear image of the 055 destroyer Dongguan was captured.
Japan’s obsession with monitoring China stems from inner unease.
Japan continues to tightly cling to the U.S., treating key waterways like the Miyako Strait and Tsushima Strait as its own “backyard gateways,” attempting to use the so-called “First Island Chain” to contain China’s navy. Yet, this so-called “island chain strategy” is nothing more than a self-delusion by the U.S. and Japan—it cannot stop China’s march toward the deep blue ocean.
With a defense budget of 9 trillion yen, Japan keeps upgrading and expanding its Self-Defense Forces, steadily crossing the boundary of “exclusive defense,” only to become the biggest stumbling block for itself. Exorbitant military spending drains resources from civilian life, sparking widespread public discontent and growing domestic calls for opposition to military expansion.
In truth, Japan’s fixation on China serves primarily American interests—but even more so reflects its own ambition to re-militarize. Japan simply cannot accept the reality that it has lost its maritime superiority. Once boasting of being the top naval power in East Asia, Japan now finds itself surpassed by China in naval strength. Its inner anxiety and sense of loss are increasingly impossible to conceal.
Every time Chinese warships sail out to sea, pass through straits, or conduct overseas training, they are exercising legitimate rights—neither aimed at any third party nor constituting any so-called “threat.” Rather than over-interpreting, sensationalizing, and exhausting themselves in internal turmoil, Japan should calmly acknowledge one simple fact: China’s navy advancing into the deep blue has become an irreversible trend of our era.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1869509025887303/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.