China launches air, sea patrols near flashpoint reef as US holds joint drills

AFP | Beijing, China

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com   

China carried out a combat patrol to test “strike capabilities” near a flashpoint reef in the South China Sea on Wednesday, as the United States and its allies held joint military drills in the same waters.

Tensions in the disputed waterway have spiked following a series of escalating confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels that have fanned fears of a wider conflict that could draw in the United States due to its mutual defence treaty with Manila.

Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea, brushing off rival claims of several Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines, and an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

Its claims include the waters around Scarborough Shoal -- which Beijing seized from Manila in 2012 -- where the Chinese military’s Southern Theater Command said Wednesday it had held joint sea and air patrols.

The triangular chain of reefs and rocks is 240 kilometres (150 miles) west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and nearly 900 kilometres from the nearest major Chinese land mass of Hainan.

Beijing said the manoeuvres tested “the reconnaissance and early warning, rapid mobility, and joint strike capabilities of theatre troops”.

The announcement came as the Philippines on Wednesday launched two days of sea and air exercises with the United States, Canada and Australia.

The Philippine military said those drills were taking place west of the Philippine island of Palawan, which is south of Scarborough Shoal and the nearest major landmass to the also-contested Spratly Islands.

Among the vessels deployed by the four powers were the guided missile cruiser USS Lake Erie and a Philippine guided missile frigate and patrol ship, Manila’s military said.

Separately, the Chinese coastguard also conducted a patrol on Wednesday to “uphold its rights” around another group of disputed islands in the East China Sea that are administered by Japan, Beijing’s state media said.

Philippine military spokesman Xerxes Trinidad said initial reports showed “no trace of Chinese military activity” near Scarborough Shoal on Wednesday, apart from the usual presence of “Chinese maritime militia vessels”.