Salon.
BEIJING
(AP) — China says its air force has staged one of its largest-ever
drills amid heightened tensions with Japan and its southern neighbors
over territorial claims.
State media said Friday that the air
combat exercises involving more than 100 pilots were held over 11 days
last month in the vast northwestern region of Xinjiang. Aircraft taking
part included China’s most modern jet fighters, the J-10 and J-11,
according to the website of the Communist Party newspaper People’s
Daily.
While the exercises were being held, China’s navy for the
first time launched and recovered aircraft from the country’s first
aircraft carrier. The exercises also came amid stepped-up sea patrols
around East China Sea islands claimed by China but controlled by Japan,
as well as renewed feuding between China and other claimants in the
South China Sea.
