China begins live-fire drills with ‘powerful’ ammo near South China Sea

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has begun a well-publicised live-fire drill with “powerful ammunition” in the southern Guangdong province’s Leizhou Peninsula, considered to be the doorstep of the (SCS), official media reported.

The week-long drills, which will include anti-ship and anti-aircraft exercises by the PLA air force with the PLA’s navy and rocket forces joining in, are being held in the backdrop of rising tension with the US over, among other issues, the SCS disputes and Washington’s sale of arms to Taiwan.

Last week, for the first time, Washington rejected China’s maritime claims in the SCS, large parts of which are also claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan.

The messaging behind the PLA’s latest drill is directed at the US, which had also, earlier this month, deployed two of its frontline aircraft carriers and their strike groups comprising more battleships, in the SCS besides flying reconnaissance aircraft in the region.

Announcing the Leizhou drills, a PLA notice issued earlier this week said the “…live-fire exercises will cover an extensive area with powerful ammunition, and the general public should not enter the designated sea areas.”

The PLA did not share the specifics of the exercise but Chinese military experts



pointed out that the use of the phrase “powerful ammunition” in the notice could be taken as an indicator of the nature and the components of the drill.

Citing the phrase, the Ordnance Industry Science Technology, a Xi’an-based defence magazine said ballistic missiles in the Dong Feng (East Wind) series of the PLA Rocket Force “…should be among the first to be identified as powerful ammunition.”

Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert told the nationalistic Global Times tabloid that maritime live-fire drills by the air force usually include shooting aircraft and surface vessels.

“Such drills could train to secure air superiority and target hostile warships in the SCS,” Song said.

In a potential anti-ship exercise featuring the PLA’s Rocket Force, ballistic missiles can target large surface vessels and heavy anti-ship cruise missiles could also conduct long-range strike from 300 to 400 kilometres away, Song told the tabloid.

Earlier in the month, China’s air force held live-fire drills and sent more fighter jets to one of its bases in the SCS, official media reported.

A brigade under the PLA Southern Theater Command Navy aviation forces based in south China’s Hainan Province held live-fire maritime target attack drills with JH-7 fighter bombers.