United States States Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel gets a rare and personal tour of China's first-ever training aircraft carrier,  the Liaoning.

Hagel arrived in the Chinese city of Qingdao after a two-day visit to Japan. Hagel is the first Western government official to see China's first carrier.

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The United States requested the Chinese government for a 'significant'  opportunity to see the carrier.

In what is pronounced as a gesture of transparency and cooperation by Beijing, Hagel was given two hours to take a tour of the Liaoning currently docked at the Yuchi Naval base of the People's Liberation Army Navy in Shendong province.

The Liaoning and its escort group nearly collided with a United States naval vessel in the waters north of the South China Sea in 2013.

The guided missile cruiser, USS Cowpens, was reportedly traversing through international waters in December when a Chinese escort of the the Liaoning forced the cruiser to take evasive action.

Hagel has since called on China over the incident and called it irresponsible.

The United States has not issued any detailed statements on the visit.

ASIAN SECURITY CONCERNS

Hagel is in China for a four-day visit in a tour of Asian countries. Late last week, Hagel met with defense ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Hawaii as a symbol of the United States military's pivot to Asia.

During his visit to Japan, he assured Toko and the other Asian allies of Washington that they will be secured from acts of aggression by hostile nations.

Hagel's statement is viewed as an assurance for Asian allies amid rising tensions in the East Asian region as a result of overlapping maritime territorial claims and the continuing belligerence of North Korea.

The U.S. is stepping up its presence in Asia as China expands its military capability. Beijing is currently at odds with Japan over a few parcel of islands in the East China Sea, claimed by both China and Taiwan.

During a press conference in Tokyo over the weekend, Hagel said, " You cannot redefine boundaries and violate territorial integrity and sovereignty of nations by force, coercion and intimidation, whether it's in small islands in the Pacific or large nations in Europe."

Beijing is also at an intense stage of relations with the Philippines and other ASEAN-member nations over China's nine-dash historical claim over the whole of the South China Sea, seen as a direct violation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) by Manila and its Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ).

The Philippines has sought third party mediation to solve the case and filed an arbitration request before the United Nations High Tribunal. China, for its part, maintains that the issue can be resolved via bilateral talks.

Beijing has balked at Manila's action and has increased the presence of Chinese coast guard vessels in the contested waters.

In late March, a supply run by the Philippine Navy to an outpost manned by marines, a grounded LST vessel on the Second Thomas Shoal (Ayungin Shoal in the Philippine| Ren'ai Ansha in China) was blocked by two Chinese coast guard vessels.

Bejing insists that Manila intentionally 'beached' the ship in 1999 and has threatened to haul off the vessel if Manila does not remove it.

On the Northeast front, China declared in 2013 its East China Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) that overlaps with South Korea and Japan air space. China is also demanding from Tokyo the return of the Diao yu' islands (Senkaku islands in Japan).

Tokyo is claiming historical rights over the Liancourt rocks that is currently occupied by South Korean forces. The chunk of rock-like island formation in the Sea of Japan called Takeshima by Japan (Dokdo in Korea) is a rich fishing ground and a rich deposit of methane clathrate.

In the case of North Korea, China's chief ally in the region, Pyongyang continues to raise nuclear threats in East Asia over its nuclear testing and regular test launch of continental missiles.

Despite international sanctions and requests for North Korea to return to the negotiating table, Pyongyang continues to rattle its sabres, sending shivers across the region on whether the next missile launch contains an active nuclear warhead or not.

CHINA'S DEFENSIVE POSTURE

For this year, China is spending US$131.57 billion (808.23 Billion yuan) to beef up and modernize its defense capabilities. China is now ranked second after the United States as the world's biggest spender in defense technology.

During a recent European tour of Chinese President Li Jinping, the Chinese leader rationalized his country's spending as a necessary process in order to defend China's large territory.

The Liaoning is the first ever aircraft carrier in the Chinese navy and is currently on active duty as a training ship for China's future generation of carrier ships.

The aircraft carrier was originally purchased in 1988 from Ukraine under the now defunct navy of the Soviet Union.

The Liaoning was originally called as the Varyag, an Admiral Kuznetsov class multi-role aircraft carrier until it was classified for scrapping.

In 2005, the ship was moved to Dalian port, and instead of renovating the ship into the world's biggest floating casino, the People's Liberation Army Navy decided to resurrect the Varyag as China's first carrier. The ship was commissioned in December of 2012.

The Liaoning is still undergoing upgrades and being used to train Chinese naval officers and personnel, seen by its neighbors and the United States as Beijing's attempt to project its power across the waters in East Asia and into the Pacific.