Chinese carrier leads live fire drill in East China Sea

BEIJING: China’s sole aircraft carrier has led a flotilla of naval vessels in a ‘live combat drill’ in the East China Sea, state media reported yesterday, the latest show of force by Beijing’s burgeoning navy.

The official Xinhua news agency said the vessels ‘ took part in anti- aircraft and antisubmarine warfare training’ with a simulated ‘opposing force’.

Xinhua said the drill, which took place on Sunday, included multiple take- offs from the deck of the Liaoning aircraft carrier by J-15 fi ghter jets and that ‘antiair missiles were fi red from ships surrounding the carrier’.

The manoeuvre occurred in the East China Sea, though the report did not give an exact location.

The sea is home to uninhabited islets at the centre of a festering row between Tokyo and Beijing.

The Japanese government has long complained about China’s routine dispatch of coast guard ships to waters surrounding the islands.

The presence of a naval convoy carrying out live fire drills in the East China Sea could anger Tokyo.

The Liaoning is a refurbished Cold War- era aircraft carrier that was bought from Ukraine and commissioned in 2012.

It has been on a high-visibility tour in recent weeks, carrying out a series of muscle- flexing drills accompanied by a flotilla of support ships, including destroyers.

Earlier this month, Chinese President Xi Jinping inspected the convoy as it conducted exercises in the disputed South China Sea.

The flotilla then held two separate drills last week in waters on either side of Taiwan, infuriating the government in Taipei. — AFP