China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force yesterday said its aircraft had again flown around Taiwan, the latest in a series of exercises this month.
It said in a statement that it scrambled fighter jets, early warning aircraft, reconnaissance airplanes and H-6K bombers from multiple airfields for “combat military drills.”
The PLA Air Force said that its H-6K bombers had since Wednesday last week conducted numerous drills circling Taiwan “to improve its ability to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
The Ministry of National Defense in Taipei said that it sent aircraft and ships to monitor the activity and ensure the nation’s maritime and airspace security, adding that there were no “abnormal situations.”
In related news, Chinese Ministry of National Defense spokesman Colonel Wu Qian (吳謙) yesterday told a regular monthly news conference in Beijing that the PLA has put into service a new missile that Chinese media has dubbed the “Guam killer” for its ability to hit the US Pacific island territory with a conventional or nuclear warheads.
The military has begun putting into service the DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile, Wu said.
He gave few details, saying only that it can carry conventional, as well as nuclear, warheads and attack targets on land or at sea with precision.
China has made little secret of the DF-26 program, and the missile appeared in a major military parade in Beijing in 2015.
Wu also reiterated a warning by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) on Wednesday that the PLA drills in the Taiwan Strait were designed to send a clear message to Taiwan, and that China would take further steps if pro-independence forces persisted in doing as they pleased.
“Engaging in Taiwan independence is a dead end,” Wu said.
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