China's aircraft carrier was set to depart for the South China Sea on Tuesday for a training mission, state media said, amid growing concerns over Beijing's newly declared air defense zone that sparked a war of words with Japan.

It is the first time that China sent its sole aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, to the South China Sea since it was commissioned last year, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Liaoning was escorted by two missile destroyers, the Shenyang and Shijiazhuang, and two missile frigates, the Yantai and Weifang, the report said.

China announced Saturday its new Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over a large area of the East China Sea that partly overlaps those of South Korea and Japan.

The Chinese zone included a set of islands at the center of a territorial dispute between Beijing and Tokyo, which are known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan. The new zone also included a South Korean-controlled submerged rock of Ieodo.

China requires all aircraft entering the new zone to report to Chinese authorities and follow their instructions and that its military will take "defensive emergency measures" if a foreign aircraft does not comply with the air-zone rules.

Asked how China would respond to a civilian aircraft refusing to comply with the rules, China's foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang declined to go into details.

But Qin did say at a regular briefing on Tuesday, "It has been made clear in the announcement of the Air Defense Identification Zone rules. China will make relevant reactions in accordance with the situation."

Meanwhile, a survey released by the Chinese state-run Global Times newspaper showed that about 85 percent of Chinese respondents supported Beijing's new air control zone.

According to the survey, 84.1 percent of Chinese respondents said the zone would "safeguard China's airspace security," with

53.6 percent saying the zone "will give China an edge in dealing with the dispute" with Japan.

Tension sparked in September last year when the Tokyo government purchased three of the disputed islands from a private owner.

The conflict between the two sides over the disputed islands has reached a flashpoint, with their patrol ships playing cat-and-mouse games near the islands. Japanese fighter jets scrambled as China's military aircraft flew near Japan. (Yonhap News)