BEIJING: The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on Saturday reportedly dispatched 13 warplanes including eight H-6K bombers to locations in the middle of the island of Taiwan and the Dongsha Islands in the South China Sea, as the US aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt entered the South China Sea from the south of Taiwan on the same day for “routine operations,” in a first since US President Joe Biden assumed office.
While some analysts said the PLA bomber swarm aimed to deter the US carrier and used the warship as a simulated target in an exercise, others said the PLA exercises were routine and not necessarily related to the US operations.
The Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group entered the South China Sea on Saturday to conduct routine operations, reads a statement the US Indo-Pacific Command released on the same day. Citing commercial satellite imagery, Beijing-based think tank the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative said the US carrier entered the region via the Bashi Channel, to the south of the Taiwan island. This is the first time a US aircraft carrier has entered the South China Sea since Biden assumed office on Wednesday, but Chinese analysts said that US military operations in the region have never stopped and are nothing new.
– The Daily Mail-Global Times News exchange item
