Come and have a look, China says as carrier skirts Japan | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/china-defence-carrier-idUSL4N1EO149
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.
[…]
Asked about the Liaoning’s encounters with Japanese ships and aircraft, Chinese defence ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said it was natural people wanted to look at something attractive.
“There is an expression in China - the love for beauty is common to all men,” Yang told a monthly news briefing.
“Our Liaoning is both mighty and pretty. If people are interested in it, they can look at it from afar, or peep at it. As long as they don’t break relevant laws and rules, or hinder navigational safety and freedom, we don’t care,” he said.
[…]
However, Yang was less amused about pictures of China’s still-under-construction second aircraft carrier that surfaced on the internet this week, including on Chinese websites.
“I think that foreign reporters reporting in China must respect relevant laws and regulations,” he said when asked about the pictures, apparently implying that he believed it was a foreign reporter who took them. He did not elaborate.
