The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force will keep conducting drills at sea regardless of whatever interference it might encounter, China’s state broadcaster reported, following reports that Chinese warplanes flew near Taiwan and Japan.
“The air force’s distant sea training has become normal, systemic and practical,” China Central Television (CCTV) quoted air force spokesman Shen Jinke (申進科) as saying late on Thursday.
The operations “have faced and dealt with a variety of forms of interference and obstruction, but no matter the obstruction we will carry on just as in the past,” Shen said.
Photo: EPA
“No matter who shadows us, we will fly often and frequently,” he said, adding that the flights were legal and reasonable.
The air force said on its microblog earlier this month that its planes had flown through both the Miyako Strait — which lies between two southern Japanese islands — and the Bashi Channel that separates Taiwan and the Philippines.
China’s long-range flight drills at sea, which started three years ago, were not targeted at any specific country or region, Shen was quoted as saying.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of National Defense responded to the flybys, saying that the nation was prepared to defend itself against China.
The Japanese air force regularly scrambles jets to monitor and chase away nearby Chinese military planes, fearing that Beijing’s probing of its air defenses is part of a push to extend its military influence in the East China Sea and western Pacific, where Japan controls an island chain stretching 1,400km south toward Taiwan.
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