Beijing landed a military plane on a disputed South China Sea reef it has built up into an artificial island, officials said yesterday, in the first confirmation of such a flight.
A Chinese air force plane landed on Fiery Cross Reef (Yongshu Reef, 永暑島) in the Spratly archipelago (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) on Sunday to evacuate sick workers, a news report posted online by the Chinese Ministry of Defense said.
China claims nearly all of the strategically vital sea, even waters close to its Southeast Asian neighbors, and has created artificial islands in an effort to assert its claims, despite conflicting claims from Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.
China has significantly expanded Fiery Cross Reef, which is also claimed by Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines, drawing international criticism.
In 2014, China began work on a 3,000m-long runway on the reef, which is about 1,000km from its island province of Hainan.
Beijing in January carried out several of what it called civilian flights to Fiery Cross Reef, enraging Hanoi.
“On the Chinese territory, this kind of thing is not surprising at all,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lu Kang (陸慷) told a regular briefing.
“It is a good tradition of the People’s Liberation Army to provide a necessary assistance to Chinese people in need,” he added.
Sunday’s flight came just days after US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter on Friday last week visited a warship close to flashpoint waters, after announcing joint naval patrols with the Philippines.
On the day of Carter’s trip, Beijing said that one of its top military officials had visited a South China Sea island.
Chinese Central Military Commission Deputy Chairman General Fan Changlong (范長龍) observed building work, the Chinese Ministry of Defense said, without giving a precise date or location of the visit.
Washington regularly accuses Beijing of militarizing the South China Sea, saying it has built runways and deployed weapons to the islands. Beijing denies the accusations and says US patrols have ramped up tensions.
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
North Korea yesterday fired about 10 ballistic missiles to the sea toward Japan, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, days after Pyongyang warned of “terrible consequences” over ongoing South Korea-US military drills. Pyongyang recently dashed hopes of a diplomatic thaw with Seoul, Washington’s security ally, describing its latest peace efforts as a “clumsy, deceptive farce.” Seoul’s military detected “around 10 ballistic missiles launched from the Sunan area in North Korea toward the East Sea [Sea of Japan] at around 1:20pm,” JCS said in a statement, referring to South Korea’s name for the body of water. The missiles
‘UNWAVERING FRIENDSHIP’: A representative of a Japanese group that co-organized a memorial, said he hopes Japanese never forget Taiwan’s kindness President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday marked the 15th anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, urging continued cooperation between Taiwan and Japan on disaster prevention and humanitarian assistance. Lai wrote on social media that Taiwan and Japan have always helped each other in the aftermath of major disasters. The magnitude 9 earthquake struck northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, triggering a massive tsunami that claimed more than 19,000 lives, according to data from Japanese authorities. Following the disaster, Taiwan donated more than US$240 million in aid, making it one of the largest contributors of financial assistance to Japan. In addition to cash donations and
CLOSER TO CHINA: The upgraded Type-12 missile has a range of about 1,000km, compared with the original model’s range of 200km, and can reach mainland China Japan is preparing to deploy its first batch of domestically developed long-range missiles, with their launchers arriving at an army camp yesterday, as the country accelerates its offensive capability in response to rising challenges in the region. The upgraded Type-12 land-to-ship missiles are to be deployed at Camp Kengun in Japan’s southwestern prefecture of Kumamoto by the end of this month, completing the process of deployment, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said without giving details. Army vehicles carrying the launchers and other equipment arrived past midnight in a highly secretive mission criticized by residents. Dozens of people stood outside of the
RSS