China Releases Footage of Military Beach Landing Drill in South China Sea

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) released video footage Wednesday of its members conducting beach landing drills near the South China Sea’s disputed Paracel Islands days after Taiwan’s military simulated a defensive response to a Chinese attack on its reefs.

China, Taiwan, and Vietnam all claim the Paracel Islands. The state-run China Central Television (CCTV) reported on the PLA war games near the Paracels on Wednesday without specifying the exact date of the exercises, though it said they occured “in recent days.” The joint military drills included members of China’s Navy, Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force.

The PLA simulated a mock beach landing near Triton Island, located in the Paracel island chain, “to explore the tactics and methods of joint warfare,” CCTV reported March 3.

The video shows several Type 726 air-cushioned landing craft, also known as hovercraft, “sailing off a Type 071 amphibious transport dock and rushing onto a beach, each with a Type 96A main battle tank and fully armed marine corps soldiers on board,” according to the CCTV report.

“A Type 052D guided-missile destroyer, a Type 054A guided-missile frigate, and a support ship kept guard off the coast, while an Su-30MKK fighter and an H-6K bomber provided air cover,” CCTV relayed.

The mock assault exercise saw PLA Marine Corps troops land on the beach from amphibious vessels and helicopters, then face “strong fire resistance before the army tank team sent vehicles forward and destroyed enemy bunkers.”

The PLA’s naval flotilla also practiced other training objectives during the Paracel drill such as “air defense, anti-missile operations, and helicopter take-off and landing at night,” according to the CCTV report and PLA statements.

CCTV aired footage of China’s war games in the Paracels after the PLA launched a month-long military exercise in the disputed South China Sea on March 1. Beijing ordered the extensive military drill in response to a recent increase in the U.S. Navy’s reconnaissance operations in the contested waterway, which Washington describes as “freedom of navigation” exercises.

Taiwan’s armed forces conducted live-fire shooting exercises from the South China Sea’s Pratas Island into its surrounding waters on March 1. Pratas Island is located 200 miles southeast of Hong Kong in the northern South China Sea. It is administered by Taiwan, itself a sovereign island state. Beijing claims both Taiwan and Pratas Island, which it says pertains to China’s coastal Guangdong province. Similarly, China views Taiwan as a renegade province and has vowed to retake the island by force if necessary; the PLA staged its own “street battle” war game against Taiwan in December.

The Taiwanese coastguard said its March 1 live-fire drill on Pratas Island was part of a planned, annual training regime, which seeks “mainly to simulate the handling of intrusion by the PLA and Vietnamese ships.”