China angers US after landing warplanes, including H-6K bomber, on South China Sea reef
Pentagon condemns military activity as ‘raising tensions and destabilising the region’
A Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force strategic bomber landed for the first time on an island reef in the South China Sea, something the US Department of Defence said “serves to raise tensions and destabilise the region”.
A spokesman for the Pentagon, Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Logan, called the exercise an act of “China’s continued militarisation of disputed features in the South China Sea”.
The Chinese air force said in a statement on its website that several bombers, including the H-6K, its most advanced, had conducted take-off and landing training on an island reef, though it did not specify which one.
Hong Kong-based military observer Song Zhongping said the aircraft landed on Woody Island – or Yongxing in Mandarin – the largest of the Paracel group and southernmost of the islands claimed by Beijing in the disputed waterway.
The aim of the exercise was to strengthen China’s military presence in the region, after the US air force flew B-52 bombers there during a so-called routine training mission in April, which Beijing described as “provocative move”, Song said.