ILLUSTRATION. A Chinese Air Force H-6 bomber flying near a Taiwanese F-16 fighter jet in this February 10, 2020 photo provided by Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense.
Reporter: SS. Kurniawan | Editor: SS Kurniawan
KONTAN.CO.ID – HANOI. Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday (20/8) said the presence of Chinese bombers in the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea “endangers peace” in the region.
“The fact that related parties are sending weapons and bombers to the East Sea not only violates Vietnam’s sovereignty, but also jeopardizes the situation in the area,” Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Thi Thu Hang was quoted as saying Reuters.
The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry’s statement answered journalists’ questions about the presence of at least one Chinese bomber in the Paracel Islands, which China claims as their jurisdiction, in the South China Sea known as the East Sea in Vietnam.
Previously, a photo showed that China had deployed at least one H-6J bomber to Woody Island or Yongxing, as China calls it, in the northern part of the South China Sea for the first time.
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If true, The War Zone reported that deploying a bomber that could carry the missile forward would be a significant addition to China’s military strength in the South China Sea.
And, “It could present new challenges for potential adversaries in the region, such as the United States,” wrote The War Zone, online media from the US, in a report on Wednesday (12/8) last week.
According to The War Zone, the first to mention the placement of H-6J bombers on Woody Island was the Chinese Military Aviation blog. But, the blog only says, it happened in August 2020.
A photo later surfaced on Twitter showing ground crews examining an unarmed H-6J bomber, apparently shortly after landing on Woody Island.
Woody Island is located about 200 miles south of Hainan Island. Woody is the largest island in the disputed Paracel Archipelago in the South China Sea.
Also Read: Increasingly hot, China deployed H-6J bombers to Woody Island in the South China Sea
