Chinese PLA’s biggest Y-20 warplanes boost aid delivery to quake-hit Afghanistan

Six Y-20 flights over three days delivered 105 tonnes of relief supplies, CCTV reports

Missions highlight the large aircraft’s key role in ‘non-war military missions’, PLA officer tells state broadcaster

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The PLA Air Force’s Y-20 cargo planes marked their first aid missions to Afghanistan. Photo: Twitter

Published: 6:05pm, 1 Jul 2022Updated: 6:46pm, 1 Jul 2022

Chinese Y-20 military transport planes have delivered aid to Afghanistan after a devastating earthquake in the country’s southeast killed at least 1,000 people and left tens of thousands homeless.

Quake aid totalling 105 tonnes was delivered via six Y-20 flights over three days to the Afghan capital Kabul, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported.

The two latest flights left the Urumqi international airport in Xinjiang on Thursday morning, the report said. China’s far western Xinjiang region shares a short border with Afghanistan.

Earlier, on Monday, Beijing announced that a chartered flight carrying the first batch of relief supplies – including tents and folding beds – had landed in Afghanistan, as part of a 50 million yuan (US$7.4 million) emergency humanitarian aid package.

China had pledged to send aid after the 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit a rural, mountainous area in southeastern Afghanistan early on June 22. At least 1,000 people were killed and 2,000 others injured, with more than 10,000 homes destroyed.

The quake was a further blow for the country mired in humanitarian and economic crises since the Taliban took over in August last year.

The Y-20 missions highlighted the large military aircraft’s key role in recent Chinese aid efforts, a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officer said.

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