Wu Qian News

New Zealand said the Chinese navy conducted a live-fire exercise in international waters near the Pacific nation on Saturday, a day after it held a similar drill between Australia and New Zealand that forced airlines to divert flights."Reporting from the New Zealand Defence Force that the Chinese naval Task Group has advised of a second window for live firing activity, on Saturday afternoon," a spokesperson for Defence Minister Judith Collins said in a statement.Personnel on New Zealand Navy frigate Te Kaha observed live rounds fired from a Chinese vessel's main gun…

China accused the Philippines on Friday of having "provoked trouble" in the South China Sea with U.S. backing, a week after Beijing and Manila traded accusations over a new confrontation in the disputed waters."The Philippine side, with U.S. support and solicitation, has been stirring up trouble in many spots in the South China Sea," Wu Qian, a spokesperson for China's defence ministry, said on its official WeChat account."The Philippines is well aware that the scope of its territory is determined by a series of international treaties and has never included China's" Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal, he added. Beijing and Manila have been involved this year in a series of confrontations at reefs and outcrops in the South China Sea…

Taiwan unveiled its first domestically developed submarine on Thursday, a major step in a project aimed at strengthening the island's defense and deterrence against the Chinese navy, though it won't enter service for another two years.Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has made the indigenous submarine program a key part of an ambitious project to modernize its armed forces as Beijing stages almost daily military exercises to assert its sovereignty.President Tsai Ing-wen…

As Washington and Beijing trade barbs over the coronavirus pandemic, a longer-term struggle between the two Pacific powers is at a turning point, as the United States rolls out new weapons and strategy in a bid to close a wide missile gap with China.The United States has largely stood by in recent decades as China dramatically expanded its military firepower. Now, having shed the constraints of a Cold War-era arms control treaty, the Trump administration is planning to deploy long-range…

China, Iran and Russia will hold joint naval drills starting on Friday in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Oman, China's defence ministry said on Thursday, amid heightened tension in the region between Iran and the United States.China will send the Xining, a guided missile destroyer, to the drills, which will last until Monday, and are meant to deepen cooperation between the three countries' navies, ministry spokesman Wu Qian told a monthly news briefing.The drill was a "normal military exchange" between the three armed forces and was in line with international law and practices…

China's latest drill in the South China Sea was a normal search and rescue exercise, the defence ministry said on Thursday, less than a week after a U.S. navy destroyer sailed near the Paracel Islands, provoking a warning from Chinese warships to leave. China routinely holds drills in the busy waterway, where Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have rival claims. The search and rescue exercises were being conducted off the coast of the island province of Hainan and were regular drills forming part of annual plans, a defence ministry spokesman, Wu Qian, told a monthly news briefing, but gave no further details. China's maritime safety administration said the exercises would run all day on Thursday, and ordered all other shipping to keep away.

Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling set for July 12. An international court said it would deliver a hotly anticipated ruling in the Philippines' case against China over the South China Sea on July 12, drawing an immediate rebuke from Beijing, which rejects the tribunal's jurisdiction. The United States, which is a close ally of the Philippines and is concerned about China's expansive South China Sea claims, reiterated its backing for The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration and urged a peaceful resolution of the dispute. Manila is contesting China's historical claim to about 90 percent of the South China Sea, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

China has confirmed it will send warships to join a major US-hosted naval drill this summer, even as tension between the world’s two largest economies mounts over the South China Sea, reports Reuters. The Naval exercise Rimpac (Rim of the Pacific ) is  the world's largest international maritime drill, held every two years in Hawaii in June and July. The U.S. and its allies have expressed growing concern over the Asian giant’s military buildup, as well as its increasingly assertive posture in the South China Sea. “Joining these military exercises will be beneficial to improving the Chinese navy’s ability to contend with non-traditional security threats,” Wu Qian, a spokesman of China’s Ministry of Defense, told a regular briefing.