President Biden Appears to Acknowledge Visits to Japan and South Korea
[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] China has released footage of a joint exercise in which Chinese and Russian military aircraft massively entered the Korean Air Defense Identification Zone (KADIZ) on the 24th.
China's state-run broadcaster CCTV's military channel Yangs Military released the footage of the exercise produced by the Russian Ministry of Defense on Chinese social media platform Weibo on the same day. The 1 minute and 24 seconds video compressively shows takeoff, flight, and landing scenes of the Chinese bomber H-6K and the Russian bomber Tupolev (Tu)-95MS.
Yangs Military added subtitles in the video explaining, "According to the annual training plan of the Chinese and Russian militaries, on the 24th, the air forces of both countries conducted an annual joint strategic air patrol over the East Sea, East China Sea, and the Western Pacific Ocean."
Although the source of the video is Russia, China's introduction of the footage through state media is interpreted as an attempt to emphasize the deterrence message toward South Korea, the United States, and Japan contained in this exercise. In 2020 and 2021, Chinese and Russian military aircraft also entered KADIZ, but those incidents occurred at the end of the year, such as December 2020 and November last year. Some speculate that China and Russia likely chose the timing of the exercise with consideration of U.S. President Joe Biden's visits to South Korea and Japan.
However, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense stated that the exercise was conducted to strengthen China-Russia military cooperation and is unrelated to President Biden's visits to South Korea and Japan. Wu Qian, spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of National Defense, said on the 25th that the purpose of this China-Russia joint exercise was "to assess and enhance the level of cooperation between the two air forces and to promote strategic mutual trust and substantive cooperation between the two militaries." He also asserted, "This action is not aimed at any third party and is unrelated to the current international and regional situation."
According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at around 7:56 a.m. on the 24th, two Chinese military aircraft entered KADIZ 126 km northwest of Ieodo and moved over the East Sea before exiting KADIZ northward at around 9:33 a.m. These two Chinese military aircraft then joined four Russian military aircraft in the northern East Sea at around 9:58 a.m. and exited KADIZ at around 10:15 a.m. Additionally, at around 3:40 p.m., six Chinese and Russian military aircraft were again detected near the outskirts of KADIZ.
The Japanese Ministry of Defense also confirmed that from morning to afternoon on the 24th, Chinese and Russian bombers conducted long-distance joint flights over the East Sea, East China Sea, and Pacific Ocean around Japan. Nobuo Kishi, Japan’s Minister of Defense, was reported by local broadcaster NHK as saying, "The China-Russia joint military exercise conducted amid the Quad (security dialogue among the U.S., Japan, Australia, and India) summit was intended as a show of force against Japan, a Quad member country, and the level of provocation has increased compared to previous instances."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
