US Air Force trains near South China Sea

TOKYO (Reuters) — US Air Force B-52 bombers have carried out training in the vicinity of the South China Sea and the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, the Air Force said yesterday, in what a Chinese newspaper linked to China’s drills near Taiwan.

Officials said the B-52s took off from Andersen Air Force Base on the US Pacific island of Guam and “transited to the vicinity of the South China Sea” on Tuesday.

“The B-52Hs conducted training and then transited to the vicinity of Okinawa to conduct training with USAF F-15C Strike Eagles, before returning to Guam. Continuous Bomber Presence (CBP) missions are intended to maintain the readiness of US forces. The US Pacific Command’s CBP missions, which have been routinely employed since March 2004, are in accordance with international law,” a statement read.

An Air Force spokeswoman said: “This was a routine mission.”

The exercise was reported in Taiwanese media this week, which speculated it could have been a warning from the US to China following China’s steppedup military presence around Taiwan, the self-ruled island Beijing claims as its own.

Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian was asked about the US bombers at a news briefing on Thursday but would only say Chinese armed forces had the situation under control.

China has been issuing increasingly strident warnings to Taiwan to toe the line and has been flying military aircraft around the island in what China calls “encirclement patrols.”

The widely read Chinese staterun tabloid the Global Times said in an editorial yesterday that if the US bombers were meant to send a message to Beijing about Taiwan it would not work as the “US cannot prevent the mainland exerting military pressure on Taiwan.”