Chinese state television has aired footage of a destroyer fleet conducting an exercise in the Pacific Ocean, after Beijing and Manila traded barbs over a PLA Navy transit through the Basilan Strait earlier this week.
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The CCTV report on Tuesday showed the Zunyi Type 055 destroyer, Hengyang Type 054A frigate and Weishanhu Type 903 replenishment vessel carrying out far-sea combat training at an undisclosed Pacific location over the Lunar New Year.
They were the same three warships seen sailing through the 18km (11-mile) Basilan Strait – which separates the Philippine islands of Mindanao and Basilan – towards the Sulu Sea on Sunday.
The People’s Liberation Army warships, led by the stealth guided-missile destroyer, play an important role in China’s blue-water naval ambitions.
Tuesday’s report highlighted young sailors taking part in the drill who were on their first deployment.
According to former PLA instructor Song Zhongping, the message of the state television report was that the Basilan Strait transit “was just a routine naval exercise and should not be misinterpreted as a deterrence manoeuvre, or a show of force”.
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