The Pentagon criticized what it called China’s “continued militarization” of island outposts in the disputed South China Sea, where the Chinese air force landed long-range bombers for the first time, putting all of Southeast Asia within their range.
The China Daily on Saturday reported that the People’s Liberation Army Air Force conducted takeoff and landing training with the H-6K bomber in the South China Sea.
A statement from the Chinese Minister of National Defense late on Friday said the exercise was conducted on an island reef, but it did not specify when or where, saying only that it took place recently at a “southern sea area.”
Photo: AP / Xinhua / Liu Rui
It involved several H-6Ks taking off from an air base and making a simulated strike against sea targets, the ministry said.
The US criticized the move.
“The United States remains committed to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” a Pentagon spokesman, Marine Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Logan, said in an e-mail. “We have seen these same reports and China’s continued militarization of disputed features in the South China Sea only serves to raise tensions and destabilize the region.”
The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, using Chinese social media posts, identified the location of the exercise as Woody Island (Yongxing Island, 永興島), China’s largest base in the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), that are also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.
With a combat radius of nearly 1,900 nautical miles (3,520km), the H-6K bomber would put all of Southeast Asia in its range from Woody Island, AMTI said.
In related news, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday reiterated that he would not provoke China into a war.
“You know they have the planes, not stationed in Spratly [Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島)], but near the provinces facing — Chinese provinces facing the Spratly and the China Sea. And with their hypersonic, they can reach Manila within seven to 10 minutes,” Duterte said in a speech in Cebu, according to a transcript e-mailed yesterday by his office.
"What will we arm ourselves with if there’s a war? Will we resort to slapping each other? I couldn’t even buy myself a rifle. It was given to me. So how will we even fight with the Chinese?” he was quoted as saying.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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