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Chinese Aircraft Makes 1st Public Landing on Disputed Island

Chinese Aircraft Makes 1st Public Landing on Disputed Island
Chinese Aircraft Makes 1st Public Landing on Disputed Island

A Chinese military aircraft has for the first time publicly landed at a new airport on an island China has built in the disputed South China Sea, state media said on Monday, raising the prospect that China could base fighter jets there.

The United States has criticized China’s construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea and worries that it plans to use them for military purposes, even though China says it has no hostile intent, Reuters reported.

The runway on the Fiery Cross Reef is 3,000 meters long and is one of three China has been building for more than a year by dredging sand up onto reefs and atolls in the Spratly archipelago.

Civilian flights began test runs there in January.

In a front-page story, the official People’s Liberation Army Daily said a military aircraft on patrol over the South China Sea on Sunday received an emergency call to land at Fiery Cross Reef to evacuate three seriously ill workers.

They were then taken in the transport aircraft back to Hainan Island for treatment, it said, showing a picture of the aircraft on the ground in Hainan.

It was the first time China’s military had publicly admitted landing an aircraft on Fiery Cross Reef, the influential Global Times tabloid said.

It cited a military expert as saying the flight showed the airfield was up to military standards and could see fighter jets based there in the event of war.

More than $5 trillion of world trade are shipped through the South China Sea every year. Besides China’s territorial claims in the area, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims.

Financialtribune.com