China holds fighter jet training sessions with Russia

China has released photos of joint Air Force training sessions with Russia in the East China Sea, where Taiwan and the Senkaku Islands, a subject of territorial dispute between China and Japan, are located. These actions come as counter to the U.S. government's decision to deploy MQ9 Reaper, known as one of the most powerful weapons in the world, from July in Kagoshima prefecture in Japan, adjacent to East China Sea, reflecting heightened tensions between China and the U.S.

China Central Television released photos of two J-16 fighter jets, one H-6K bomber jets, one unit of Russia's long-distance bomber jet TU-95MS, claiming that "Air Forces of China and Russia have completed patrol sessions in East China Sea on May 26.” J-16 jet had been equipped with missilesp capable of short distance bombing. "Joint training sessions at both countries have been ongoing since 2019, with the aim of mutual cooperation and trust building. This has been our fourth patrol session," said Wu Qian, spokesperson for the Chinese Defense Ministry.

The government-run Huangiu Shibao reported that China had not released the information of fighter jets that took part in the session and that the information may have been intentionally released to raise threats to the US, Japan and Taiwan. China's J-20 and Russia's Su-57 and other state-of-the-art Stealth aircraft may be featured in the next session. Both models have been developed to fight against American Stealth aircraft F-35.

China's first aircraft carrier Liaoning has been stationed in the east of Taiwan and West Pacific, south of Japan for around 20 days from early June and engaged in around 300 fighter jet and helicopter launching sessions.

The Japanese media reported on Saturday that the U.S. government has decided to deploy eight units of MQ9 Reaper on the Kanoya Air Base of the Kagoshima Prefecture for one year. The drone, also known as "Killer of the Skies", is one of the best in the world for its information compiling, patrol and attacking abilities and will be inspecting Chinese navy activities in East China Sea and North Korea's illegal ship-to-ship transfer activities.


Ki-Yong Kim kky@donga.com