People’s
Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece, said on Monday that the South
China Sea Fleet under the Navy of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army recently
dispatched several modern warships to carry out “high-sea training mission” in
the Bashi Channel, also called Basi, a strait located between the borders of
the Philippines near Babuyan Islands in Y’Ami, and Orchid Island in Taiwan.
While Bashi
Channel is considered an international passage, China ’s
decision to conduct its high-sea training in the area, was seen as Beijing ’s way of sending a strong message to the claimants
in the South China Sea, including the Philippines ,
which had repeatedly rejected Beijing ’s
“excessive claims” of the disputed territories.
Early this
year, the Philippines
brought its case before an international tribunal under the United Nations
Conventions on the Law of the Sea, and invited China to participate.
A Chinese
naval expert, Zhang Junshe, described the high-sea training of the Chinese Navy
as a “routine” military training, which he said conforms with international
laws.
He also urged
other countries to refrain from conducting close-in tracking or interfere with
the normal training of the Chinese naval taskforce.
He added that
normalized high-sea training is indispensable to enhance Chinese Navy’s
capability of “fighting and winning battles”
Zhang said the
Chinese naval training was actually the second time that crossed the “first
island chain” in 2013.
He identified
the warships which are set to participate in the naval drills as “Lanzhou,” a
guided missile destroyer, “Yulin” and “Hengshui” both guided missile frigates
and the “Jinggangshan” an amphibious dock landing warship, which are equipped
with long-range air-defense and anti-ship missiles, short-range quick
air-defense guns and ship-borne helicopters, and are of comprehensive combat
capabilities such as strong regional and point air defense as well as
anti-submarine and anti-ship capabilities.
The taskforce,
he said, would sail across the Bashi Channel and carry out a series of actual
combat confrontation drills in the Western Pacific on such training subjects as
maritime maneuver operation, maritime sovereignty protection, high-sea escort,
support operation, and so on.
The Manila
Standard Today tried to reach Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez and
presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda, but both were unavailable for comment as
of press time, although the Foreign Affairs said late last week that they were
still ascertaining the exact location of the drills.
The Chinese
Navy’s drills comes at the heels of the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping
to Russia in Moscow over the weekend.
Xi’s visit,
according to Chinese news websites, was aimed at strengthening “exchanges and
cooperation” between the military forces of the two countries.
But even
before Xi’s visit, which includes meetings with Russian President Vladimir
Putin, and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, China
had already decided to buy two dozen fighter jets (Su-35) and four Lada-class
submarines from Russia .
Reports said
the purchase was China ’s
first large-scale weapons technology purchases from Moscow in a decade.
The report,
which did not give a value for the purchases, said it was the first time in 10
years China had bought
“large military technological equipment” from Russia .
The deal comes
as Beijing expands its military reach — it
commissioned its first aircraft carrier last year — and is embroiled in a
bitter territorial row with Japan
over disputed islands in the East China Sea .
Two of the
submarines will be built in Russia ,
with the other two to be built in China .
Xi visited Moscow from Friday to
Sunday for talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, his first trip
abroad since becoming head of state earlier this month.
The countries
signed around 30 energy and other agreements during the visit.
Xi also met
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and became the first foreign leader to visit the
Russian armed forces’ control centre.
As this
developed, another US warship docked in South Harbor in Manila on Monday, a day
after three US warships docked in three different sites in the country.
A Philippine
Navy statement said that the USS Reuben James (FFG 57), an Oliver Hazzard
Perry- class guided missile frigate of the US Navy headed by Commander Daniel
W. Valascho arrived on Monday for a routine port call/visit intended for the
replenishment of logistic supplies, routine maintenance of shipboard and crew
liberty.
It said the
ship, which has 24 Officers and 172 enlisted personnel, will stay in the
country until March 29.
Last week, the
USS Ohio submarine, the destroyer USS Decatur, and the submarine tender USS
Frank Cable docked in Subic in Zambales, Manila ,
and Cebu , respectively.
An RP-US
Balikatan exercises are also scheduled next month.
http://manilastandardtoday.com/2013/03/26/china-runs-naval-drills-off-ph-shores/
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