Chinese bombers recently mimicked an attack on a U.S. aircraft carrier in the South China Sea, the U.S. military said Friday, confirming that the Financial Times had reported earlier.
While the Navy Theodore Roosevelt striker group sailed into the South China Sea last Saturday, the Chinese army sent eight H-6K bombers, four J-16 fighter jets and one Y-8 anti-submarine war vehicle past Taiwan and in flight. the disputed waterway.
Tracing data indicate that the US airline attack entered the South China Sea through the Bashi Channel when the Chinese fighters flew through the air defense identification zone of Taiwan.
The next day, an unidentified military analyst on the mainland told China’s state-owned Global Times that the Chinese move was a training exercise aimed at “boosting the PLA’s combat capability against U.S. aircraft carriers, as the bombers could practice.” launching a saturation attack on US ships.
Another analyst told the newspaper that the flights were probably a routine operation that had nothing to do with U.S. vessels in the area.
A Chinese Air Force H-6K bomber
Xinhua / Guo Wei via Getty Images
The Financial Times, referring to people familiar with the US and related intelligence, reported on Friday that Chinese bombers and fighters had mimicked an attack on Theodore Roosevelt striker group. The Chinese bomber pilots were also reportedly heard confirming that they were confirming orders for the navy and simulating the firing of anti-ship missiles.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific spokesman, Capt. Mike Kafka, in an email to Insider, said that ‘the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group closely monitored all the activities of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and the Air Force (PLAAF) and that at no time were they a threat to American naval ships, aircraft or sailors. ‘
A defense official said the Chinese planes did not arrive within 250 kilometers of U.S. naval vessels, placing them outside the estimated range of the YJ-12 anti-ship cruise missiles transported by the H-6K. There was indeed a simulated attack, the official said.
Kafka says in the INDOPACOM statement, “the PLA activities highlighted here are the latest in a series of aggressive and destabilizing actions.”
The spokesman said that ‘these actions reflect a continued attempt by the PLA to use the military as a tool to intimidate or coerce those operating in international waters and airspace, their neighbors and those with competing territories. claims, ‘and adds that the’ United States’ continues to fly, sail and operate where international law allows, and we are determined by our operational presence in the region.
The U.S. Navy said in a statement last Sunday that the Theodore Roosevelt strike group was routinely going to the U.S. 7th Fleet’s area of responsibility to conduct maritime security operations.
China objects to the US military’s regular presence in the South China Sea, even though it has been operating in the area for decades.
“It does not help with regional peace and stability that the United States regularly sends military vessels and planes to the South China Sea to flex its muscles,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a news conference on Monday. said.
The latest developments in the South China Sea highlight the challenges facing the new Biden administration when it comes to Beijing and China’s growing military power.
The new administration and China have already traded a raid on Taiwan. During Monday’s press conference, Zhao told the United States that they should “not send the wrong signals to the” Taiwanese independence forces “in order to damage relations between China and the United States and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. After the US State Department criticized China’s efforts to put Taiwan under military, economic and diplomatic pressure.
Wu Qian, spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Defense, said on Thursday that Chinese military activity near Taiwan was essential and warned that it would mean war if Taiwan pursued independence from China.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement from the Biden administration’s defense department’s first press release that he had confirmed US support for Taiwan’s defense, but said tensions “should not lead to anything like a confrontation.” “