China may have tested Japan and the United States to see their response through military actions by its aircraft carrier Liaoning and bombers near Japan in December, it has been learned.
The Liaoning and the bombers, flying together with similar Russian aircraft, turned back at almost the same longitude in the Pacific Ocean off the coasts of Shikoku and the Kii Peninsula, Defense Ministry sources said.
At that time, the U.S. 7th Fleet aircraft carrier George Washington was conducting joint exercises with the Maritime Self-Defense Force in waters south of the Kanto region in eastern Japan.
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