Taiwan coastline within visual range of PLA pilots in drills
The large-scale live-fire military drills of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) around the island of Taiwan entered their second day on Friday. With warplanes coming so close to the island that pilots could visually confirm its coastline and the Central Mountain Range, analysts said the PLA displayed its control over the island.
The PLA Eastern Theater Command on Friday proceeded with a plan and conducted realistic combatscenario joint exercises in sea and air space to the north, southwest and east of the island of Taiwan, continuing to test the troops’ joint operational capabilities, the Eastern Theater Command said in a press release on the day.
Fighter jets, bombers, early warning aircraft and electronic reconnaissance aircraft made sorties one by one, and arrived in areas around Taiwan island for exercises including the seizing of air superiority, cover and support, air strike, reconnaissance and early warning, China Central Television (CCTV) reported.
“Today, my comrades-in-arms and I were ordered to conduct a close-in deterrence mission, in which we looked down at the coastline and the Central Mountain Range of the Taiwan island within visual range,” said Hou Hong, a pilot at a brigade attached to the PLA Eastern Theater Command Air Force who participated in the drills on Friday.
“We will continue to enhance our combat preparedness so that we can deal with all kinds of crises,” Hou said.
A video clip released by the PLA Eastern Theater Command shows that the range of visibility was not optimal and there was cloud in the mission area, but the pilots could still see Taiwan island’s coastline and the Central Mountain Range with their naked eyes, meaning that the PLA aircraft flew very close to the island, a Beijing-based military expert told the Global Times.
It displayed the PLA’s absolute superiority and control over the region, the expert said.