China has sent warplanes for joint exercise with warships in the Western Pacific Ocean a day after Taiwan deployed advanced anti-aircraft missiles and promised to ramp up military patrols to counter China’s growing military capabilities.
The drill on Thursday involved fighters, bombers and an early-warning aircraft, which the Chinese military flew east across the Miyako Strait to join Chinese warships in the Philippine Sea.
“This exercise is part of annual plans for the navy, is not aimed at a specific country or target, and accords with relevant international laws and norms,” the Chinese news agency Xinhua said in a report.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it monitored the drills, which took place outside Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone.
The Miyako Strait is of strategic importance for the Chinese military, allowing its assets to cross through the Ryukyu Islands, a chain connecting Japan in the northeast and Taiwan in the southwest. The traffic is of most concern for Japan, since it goes between two Japanese islands, Okinawa and Miyako. But Taipei is also keeping an eye on Chinese Pacific deployments.
On Wednesday, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry reported deploying US-made Patriot surface-to-air missiles on the island’s eastern coast.
