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Chinese aircraft near Taiwan aim to monitor U.S. military drills: Experts

ROC Central News Agency

06/13/2023 11:05 PM

Taipei, June 13 (CNA) China's recent deployment of aircraft southwest of Taiwan, just one day before a stage of the United States-led Large Scale Global Exercise (LSGE) was due to start, was part of its military training and an attempt to execute aerial surveillance of U.S. military activities, experts said Tuesday.

Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense announced June 8 that it had detected 37 Chinese warplanes that had flown into its Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), one day prior to the U.S., Japan, France and Canada beginning joint exercises in the Philippine Sea.

Part of the formation continued flying into the Western Pacific Ocean through Taiwan's southeastern ADIZ, which experts say was part of the attempt to monitor the joint exercises.

The LSGE is a military exercise which aims to enhance integration between the U.S. and its allies and partners in the Indo Pacific region. This year it is being held from May 24 through Aug. 19. in different stages.

"China probably kept a close watch on the movements of the U.S. forces," Shu Hsiao-huang (舒孝煌), an analyst at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told CNA, adding that the deployment probably took place to protest U.S. presence in the region, and also to take advantage of the opportunity to observe military activities as part of its anti-submarine or target-searching training efforts.

According to Shu, the Chinese aircraft that proceeded to the Western Pacific Ocean were H-6 bombers in charge of conducting aerial surveillance and long-range flight missions as part of drills to build the attacking capability of a range of jet fighters.

Retired Air Force lieutenant general Chang Yen-ting (張延廷) told CNA the breach and attack simulation by Chinese aircraft might have targeted the aircraft carriers USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan currently involved in the LSGE 23.

(By Flor Wang and Wu Sheng-hung)

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