China stages naval drills near disputed South China Sea reef

Chinese naval and air forces have held military drills in a disputed territory in the South China Sea amid tensions with the United States and its regional allies.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) forces conducted patrols around a flashpoint reef in the South China Sea on Saturday, after a slew of tense encounters with the Philippines in the disputed waterway in recent months.

The PLA’s Southern Theater Command said it held air and sea patrols across the triangular chain of reefs and rocks situated between the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and the Chinese land mass of Hainan named Scarborough Shoal by the West.

Beijing said the training activities around the shoal included “reconnaissance, early warning, and air-sea patrols”.

“Certain countries outside the region are stirring up trouble in the South China Sea, creating instability in the region,” the Southern Theater Command said in a statement.

“China holds indisputable sovereignty over Huangyan Island and its adjacent waters,” it added, using the Chinese name for Scarborough Shoal.

Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea, brushing off rival claims of several Southeast Asian countries, the Philippines among them.

On Wednesday, the PLA Rocket Force test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the Pacific Ocean.

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China’s military drills came shortly after the US hosted a Quadrilateral Summit earlier this week which coincided with joint military exercises carried out by the United States, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the Philippines in Manila’s exclusive economic zone and within the South China Sea.

Earlier this week, US President Joe Biden hosted the summit at the Archmere Academy in Wilmington, Delaware.

During a leaders’ meeting of the so-called Quad alliance between the US, Australia, India, and Japan, Biden said the grouplet is “here to stay”.

He vowed to strengthen Quad amid growing tensions with China.

During his talks, intended for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, which was recorded on a hot mic, Biden claimed China had adopted an increasingly assertive stance in the Pacific Ocean region.

He told the leaders of Australia, India and Japan that “aggressive” China is “testing us.”

“China continues to behave aggressively, testing us all across the region, and it’s true in the South China Sea, the East China Sea, South China, South Asia and the Taiwan Straits,” Biden was heard in what was supposed to be behind-closed-doors remarks to the Quad grouping of four countries.

Biden added that while Chinese President Xi Jinping was focused on “domestic economic challenges”, he was also “looking to buy himself some diplomatic space, in my view, to aggressively pursue China’s interest.”

He then claimed that Washington was making “intense efforts” to reduce tensions with Beijing, including a phone call to the Chinese leader in April, to prevent direct conflict between the countries.

Meanwhile, naval and air forces from Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines and the US also held joint exercises in the South China Sea.

The military drills by the US and its regional allies, the fourth iteration of the Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity, were held in an unspecified location in Manila’s exclusive economic zone in the strategic waterway, the US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement.

It claimed the joint military drills demonstrated “a collective commitment to strengthen regional and international cooperation in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific”.

In related news, Japan’s defense ministry said its naval destroyer Sazanami had participated in the drills with the other four countries' military forces.

Australia’s defense department separately confirmed Saturday that the HMAS Sydney and a Royal Australian Air Force P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft participated in joint exercises aimed at “upholding the right to freedom of navigation and overflight”.

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Meanwhile, tensions between Beijing and the US-backed Manila government have flared in the past few months during a series of confrontations in waters around disputed territories.

In July, the two sides said they had reached a provisional deal on resupply missions to a Philippine ship, the Sierra Madre, which is grounded on the Second Thomas Shoal with a garrison on board, aimed at asserting Manila’s claims to the reef.

Beijing said Friday it had “supervised” a Philippine ship as it delivered supplies as part of a resupply mission to the grounded vessel at the shoal.

Moreover, Washington and Beijing have been at loggerheads over a slew of issues, including China’s partnership with Russia, the origin of the COVID-19 virus, bilateral trade tariffs, technological theft, espionage, Chinese Taipei and territorial claims, among other disputed topics.

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