China carried out a “joint combat readiness patrol” drill on Wednesday in an area 40 nautical miles off Taiwan that included live fire drills, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense, which condemned the drills and dispatched military forces to monitor the drills.
In other developments, Chinese aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles have been transiting the Miyako Strait to enter the Philippine Sea and operate east and south of Okinawa this week, according to Japan Joint Staff Office releases.
The MND detected 32 sorties comprising of J-11 fighters, KJ-500 airborne early warning and control aircraft along with other types of main and auxiliary fighter aircraft and UAVs, with 22 sorties crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait, according to a Wednesday MND statement. The aircraft joined with the People’s Liberation Army Navy ships for a ‘joint combat readiness patrol.’
“During this period, it blatantly violated international practice and set up an exercise area without warning in the waters about 40 nautical miles off the coast of Kaohsiung and Pingtung, claiming that it would conduct ‘shooting training’,” reads the MND release.
“This move not only poses a high risk to the navigation safety of international flights and ships at sea but is also a blatant provocation to regional security and stability.”
The MND added that China’s recent live fire drills off Vietnam and Australia and military deterrence against the Philippines, “are sufficient to prove that China is the only and biggest threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region.”.
On Monday China carried out live-fire drills in the Gulf of Tonkin though the designated area was closer to the Chinese side of the gulf and on Friday and Saturday, a PLAN task group comprising of group cruiser CNS Zunyi (107), frigate CNS Hengyang (568) and fleet oiler CNS Weishanhu (887), conducted live firing in the waters between Australia and New Zealand, with both countries stating that while the PLAN ships were entitled to do so under international law, China should have given warnings of such earlier and not at short notice.
China’s Ministry of National Defense has not commented on Tuesday’s drills while China Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian replied, “This is not a question related to foreign affairs..”, when asked on it during a Wednesday press conference. Taiwan earlier on Tuesday detained a Chinese-linked cargo ship, flagged in Togo and crewed by eight Chinese nationals, Hong Tai 58, on suspicion of being involved in the severing of an underwater communications cable between the Penghu Islands, located in the Taiwan Strait, and Taiwan though Lin stated on Tuesday that he was not familiar with the situation and it was not a question related to foreign affairs.
On Wednesday, the New Zealand Defence Force issued an update on the PLAN task group stating that as of Wednesday morning the PLAN task group was south of Tasmania, inside the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), and moving west. An EEZ, under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, only confers to a nation exclusive rights exploration and use of marine resources within a 200NM area while ships and aircraft, both civil and military may freely transit the area and conduct activities that do not violate a country’s sovereign right to resources in the area though a handful of countries like China claim that they have the authority to restrict or regulate any foreign military activities in their EEZ though officially China’s EEZ law claims no such right.
The NZDF update stated that it continues to monitor the PLAN task group in close coordination with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and that frigate HMNZS Te Kaha (F77) and fleet oiler HMNZS Aotearoa (A11) were the NZDF assets currently monitoring the task group. The NZDF also released images of the PLAN ships from Te Kaha and its embarked SH-2G(I) Sea Sprite helicopter.
In other developments, Chinese aircraft and UAVs have been conducting flights through the Miyako Strait and East of Okinawa this week, a JSO release on Monday stated that in the morning and afternoon of that day, a People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) Y-9 electronic intelligence (ELINT) aircraft flew in from the East China Sea, then over the waters between Miyako Island and Okinawa then flew north-east over the Philippine Sea, parallel to the coast of Okinawa before turning back and flying again between Miyako Island and Okinawa to return to the East China Sea.
The JSO added that in the morning and afternoon of that day, a PLAN Y-9 maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) also flew in from the East China Sea and passed between Miyako Island and Okinawa and flew over the Philippine Sea, carrying out a circuit flight before returning back the same way into the East China Sea. The JSO stated that in response to both flights, fighter aircraft from the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) Southwest air defense command were scrambled.
On Wednesday, the JSO issued a release stating that from the morning and afternoon of that day, a Chinese military BZK-005 reconnaissance UAV flew from the East China Sea, passed between Okinawa and Miyako Island, reached the Philippine Sea and flew south of Okinawa to the waters off the island of Amami Oshima, then turned around and flew over the waters between Okinawa Island and Miyako to return to the East China Sea.
Also in the morning to afternoon on the same day, a Chinese military GJ-2, also known as the Wing Loong 2, reconnaissance/attack UAV flew from the East China Sea, following a similar route as the BZK-005 to the waters off Amani Oshima before returning back the same way to the East China Sea.
The JSO stated that fighter aircraft from the JASDF Southwest air defense command were scrambled in response and that this was the first time a Wing Loong 2 had been spotted in response to an airspace intrusion.
