Come and have a look, Beijing says as aircraft carrier skirts Japan

Beijing

IF people want to come and look at China's first aircraft carrier, they are very welcome, the defence ministry said on Thursday, brushing off encounters with the Japanese military as the carrier passed close to Japan this week.

The Soviet-built Liaoning, accompanied by several warships, this week travelled through the passage between the Japanese islands of Miyako and Okinawa and into the Pacific for what China has described as a routine exercise.

Japan said that one of its Maritime Self Defense Force ships and a P3C patrol aircraft had spotted six Chinese naval vessels including the Liaoning travelling through the passage, and they also scrambled jets after a helicopter that took off from…