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Beijing / AFP
Beijing landed a military plane on a disputed South China Sea reef it has built up into an artificial island, officials said on Monday, in the first confirmation of such a flight.
An air force plane landed on Fiery Cross reef in the Spratlys archipelago on Sunday to evacuate sick workers, a news report posted online by China’s defence ministry said.
China claims nearly all of the strategically vital sea, even waters close to its Southeast Asian neighbours, and has created artificial islands in an effort to assert its claims. It has significantly expanded Fiery Cross, which is also claimed by Vietnam and the Philippines, drawing international criticism. In 2014, China began work on a 3,000-metre (10,000 foot) runway on the reef, which is around 1,000 kilometresfrom its island province of Hainan.
Beijing in January carried out several of what it called civilian flights to Fiery Cross, enraging Hanoi.
“On the Chinese territory, this kind of thing is not surprising at all,” foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a regular briefing.
“It is a good tradition of the People’s Liberation Army to provide a necessary assistance to Chinese people in need,” he added.
This weekend’s flight came just days after US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Friday visited a warship close to flashpoint waters, after announcing joint naval patrols with the Philippines.