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China held military drill

China reportedly held an anti-aircraft-carrier drill last month to prepare for blocking US assistance to Taiwan in the event of a cross-strait war, but a Taiwanese military expert yesterday said the drill would not pose a major threat to US aircraft carriers.

"In this drill, Chinese warplanes can only descend to 100m above the water's surface, so they can still be easily detected by US radar," said Lee Shih-ping, an expert on warships and warplanes.

"In the Falklands War, the Argentine Navy's Super Etendard warplanes descended to within 30m of the British aircraft-carrier group, enabling them to fire Exocet missiles and sinking the British Royal Air Force's destroyer Sheffield and support ship Atlantic Conveyor," he said.

"But although Chinese warplanes cannot attack US aircraft carriers, Chinese submarines can attack them on their way from Japan to Taiwan or when they show up off Taiwan's east coast," he said.

Several US aircraft carriers are based in Japan and Hawaii, the headquarters of the US Pacific Command.

Yesterday, Hong Kong's pro-China newspaper Wen Wei Pao reported the Chinese air force conducted an anti-aircraft-carrier drill last month to prepare for US intervention in a cross-strait military conflict.

"A Feibao (飛豹, Flying Leopard) attack warplane descended from 600m to 100m and approached the intended target. This poses a serious threat to the US aircraft-carrier battle group because the Chinese jet can escape US radar at such a low attitude, while mid-air refueling has extended the plane's combat radius," the report said.

Local press reports said that Washington, which is bound by the Taiwan Relations Act to help provide for Taiwan's defense, may send aircraft carriers to Taiwanese waters to counter a Chinese attack.

In 1996, the US sent two aircraft-carrier battle groups to Taiwanese waters after China fired missiles into the Taiwan Strait.
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