In a display of Beijing’s growing military reach, the Chinese Navy sent two aircraft carriers into the Pacific Ocean, far from the country’s coast, for the first time to conduct exercises together, Japan’s defense minister, Gen Nakatani, said.

       Mr. Nakatani told reporters on Monday that the Chinese aircraft carriers were spotted launching and retrieving jet fighters out in the Pacific to the east of the Japanese island of Iwo Jima, about 750 miles south of Tokyo. He said the Japanese Navy was monitoring the joint exercise by both vessels, which began on Saturday.

       It was the first time that China’s two active-duty aircraft carriers, the Liaoning and the Shandong, and their escort ships had operated together in the Pacific beyond the islands of Japan, which form a natural barrier that Beijing calls the First Island Chain.

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