Day: January 25, 2022

Seven servicemen were injured in a fighter-jet accident aboard an American aircraft carrier in the South China Sea, the U.S. Navy said. 

The “landing mishap” occurred aboard the USS Carl Vinson on Monday but the pilot safely ejected from his plane and was recovered by a U.S. military helicopter, the U.S. Pacific Fleet’s public affairs office said in a statement issued from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Three of the injured sailors from the Carl Vinson were rushed to a hospital in Manila where they were in stable condition, while four were treated on-board by medical personnel, it said. The statement also listed the pilot as being in “stable condition.”

“An F-35C Lightning II, assigned to Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 2, had a landing mishap on deck while USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) was conducting routine flight operations in the South China Sea, Jan. 24,” the statement said. 

It said the “cause of the in-flight mishap” was being investigated. Additional details were not made public. 

The Carl Vinson is among two U.S. carrier groups that have been conducting maneuvers this week in the contested South China Sea amid tensions between China and Taiwan.

In Manila, a Philippine official who did not want to be named because he was not authorized to speak about the incident said the U.S. had not contacted the Philippine military about it. If the American aircraft carrier was operating in the South China Sea, it likely was sailing outside Philippine territory, the source said.

The U.S. Embassy in Manila could not immediately be reached for comment.

Freedom of navigation

The U.S. Navy and Air Force periodically conduct “freedom of navigation operations,” or FONOPs, to challenge China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea. Beijing has criticized these operations and accused Washington of provoking conflict. 

On Sunday, China dispatched 39 military aircraft into Taiwan’s air zone, the same day that the USS Carl Vinson and the USS Abraham Lincoln launched a FONOP in the South China Sea.

Taiwan said it scrambled fighters and issued radio warnings while air-defense missile systems were deployed to track the Chinese aircraft incursions, the largest since October 2021.

That occurred as the U.S. Navy was conducting joint drills with British and Japanese ships near Okinawa. The Chinese military sent 145 fighter planes to Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone, prompting the Taiwanese minister of defense to say cross-strait tensions were “at their worst in 40 years.”

Also in October 2021, three aircraft carriers and other warships from the U.S., joined by ships from the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, New Zealand and the Netherlands sailed on the fringes of the South China Sea.

The Philippines has supported a new U.S.-led defense pact with the U.K. and Australia that it hoped would address a military imbalance in Southeast Asia despite concerns aired by Malaysia and Indonesia.

China, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan have claims to territories in the South China Sea. While Jakarta does not regard itself as party to the South China Sea dispute, Beijing does claim historic rights to areas overlapping Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone.

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

China has kept up pressure on Taiwan by dispatching for the first time into the island’s Air Defense Identification Zone its latest electronic warfare aircraft designed to disrupt radar systems, analysts said.

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said in a statement that a total of 13 People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including eight J-16 fighter jets, a Y-8 anti-submarine warfare aircraft, two H-6 bombers and two J-16D electronic warfare aircraft, entered its ADIZ on Monday while two U.S. aircraft carriers were conducting joint operations in the South China Sea. Another two Chinese aircraft entered the ADIZ on Tuesday, it said.

An ADIZ is an area where civilian aircraft are tracked and identified before further entering into a country’s airspace.

The J-16D is China’s most advanced electronic warfare fighter jet. It was unveiled at an airshow only last September and entered combat training in November.

“The deployment of this kind of special electronic warfare aircraft is a threat to both Taiwan and the U.S.,” said Jyh-Shyang Sheu, a military expert at the Taiwan’s Institute for National Defence and Security Research. Like other observers, he said Monday’s flight appeared to be first time those aircraft had entered the Taiwan ADIZ.

“The aircraft can be used for jamming the Taiwanese Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) and Air Defense systems; as well as in air combat,” said Sheu.

Meanwhile, the Global Times – the hawkish sibling of Chinese Communist Party’s mouth-piece People’s Daily – claimed in an editorial on Tuesday that “it has become normal for PLA warplanes to fly around Taiwan and approach the island for patrols.”

The opinion piece ended with a chilling warning that the PLA flight routes “have been like a noose tightening around the neck of Taiwan ‘secessionists,’ making them feel breathless” and should Taiwan continue to challenge the “one-China” principle, “the noose will become tighter.”

‘Large-scale exercise’

The J-16D ‘Howling Wolf’ is China’s state-of-the-art electronic warfare anti-radar aircraft, developed by the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation.

It is designed to seize control of the electromagnetic field and disrupt radar systems, as well as hostile missiles.

Equipped with jamming pods and anti-radiation missiles, the J-16D is also said to be capable of neutralizing enemy radar systems.

The Chinese J-16D “still has a capability gap comparing with the U.S. EA-18G,” noted Sheu, the Taiwanese warfare expert.

“The new generation electronic warfare pods for the U.S. ‘Growler’ could generate its own electricity but it’s not clear if the Chinese system could also have the same efficiency,” Sheu said.

“But what’s more important is if the electronic warfare system’s mature enough and well integrated with the whole systems including other combat aircraft and even maritime assets,” he said, adding: “The PLA Air Force is certainly trying to develop more capabilities.”

The J-16D deployment came one day after the PLA sent 39 aircraft into Taiwan’s ADIZ in a move seen as a response to the ongoing drills by the U.S. and its allies in the region.

It was the largest number of Chinese warplanes documented since Oct. 4, 2021, when the PLA sent a record 56 military aircraft to near the island.

On Sunday, two U.S. Navy Carrier Strike Groups began a joint operation in the South China Sea. Before that, they took part in a joint exercise with the USS Essex Amphibious Ready Group, the USS America Expeditionary Strike Group and Japanese Navy helicopter destroyer JS Hyuga in the Philippine Sea.

The number of PLA sorties on Tuesday reduced to only two but “as long as the U.S. Navy is still conducting exercise nearby, the PLA will still send aircraft to counter it,” Sheu said.

The USS Carl Vinson and USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Groups with over 14,000 sailors and Marines were still in the area on Tuesday. It was reported that a U.S. F-35 jet crashed on the deck of the USS Carl Vinson, injuring seven including the jet’s pilot.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet said in a statement that the pilot was conducting routine flight operations when the crash happened. The pilot safely ejected from the aircraft and was recovered via U.S. military helicopter. Three injured sailors have reportedly been released, the other four are in stable condition.

Australian prime minister Scott Morrison has lost control of his official account on the Chinese social media platform WeChat, sparking concerns that Beijing may be continuing its attempts to wield political influence in the country.

Morrison’s account, which had 76,000 followers, was renamed earlier this month and his photo removed, the Sydney-based Daily Telegraph newspaper reported .

But WeChat’s parent company Tencent told the Associated Press that there was no evidence the account had been hacked.

“Based on our information, this appears to be a dispute over account ownership,” Tencent said.

The account had originally been registered as required via a Chinese national who had then transferred ownership to a Fujian-based “technology services company,” Tencent said, promising to investigate further.

An Australian national familiar with the situation told RFA that it was compulsory for new WeChat accounts to be registered by Chinese nationals, and that is what Morrison’s team did.

“WeChat generally doesn’t allow personal public accounts to be set up from overseas; they generally need to be registered by a third party in mainland China who holds a mainland Chinese ID card, so they didn’t own the account,” the source said.

Control of the account was lost as early as July 2021.

“They found out about eight months ago that they weren’t able to log in, but then they found the account had been blocked from Jan. 4,” the person said. “The account was being migrated [to a different owner], so I guess China didn’t like it very much.”

Reuters tracked the new owner down to a company called Fuzhou 985, and cited an employee as saying that they had acquired it from a Chinese man living in Fuzhou, but hadn’t notice it was linked to Morrison.

The Australian source said the account would have needed to pass through multiple procedures to win approval to be transferred to a new owner.

“The company has said very clearly that there was no government intervention, but I have my reservations about that,” they said.

Tougher on China

A commentator who gave only the nickname “Jimmy” said it’s possible that Beijing feels that Morrison’s government has been tougher on China than its predecessors.

“They wanted to do something that would have a negative impact on the Liberal Party,” he said. “They feel that the Liberal Party and its current prime minister have a tougher attitude towards China, and don’t succumb so easily to the CCP’s political influence over Australia.”

“The CCP just uses the Western democratic system and freedom of speech to instill CCP propaganda,” Jimmy said. “The vast majority of overseas Chinese rely on WeChat to get their daily information.”

“If that information is distorted and untrue, … it could have a huge impact on the political life of Australia,” he said.

Max Mok, a Hong Kong Australian running for the House of Representatives said the use of WeChat should be banned.

“The problem of CCP infiltration is an issue for all political parties,” Mok told RFA. “Apps like Douyin and WeChat pose a threat in the form of a technological back door.”

“I don’t think Western politicians should be downloading them.”

The Australian government has requested that the account be restored, but has yet to receive a reply, according to Joint Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence and Security Chair James Paterson.

He accused Beijing of seeking to censor Morrison — a fellow member of the ruling Liberal Party — ahead of a general election that must be called by May this year.

“What the Chinese government has done by shutting down an Australian account is foreign interference of Australian democracy in an election year,” Paterson said.

Some 1.2 million Chinese Australians use WeChat, but were unable to read posts from the prime minister, but could still see posts from the leader of the opposition, Anthony Albanese, he said.

Beijing’s interference likely

Liberal Party lawmaker and former diplomat Dave Sharma said interference from Beijing looked likely.

“More likely than not it was state-sanctioned and it shows the attitude towards free speech and freedom of expression that comes out of Beijing,” he said.

Meanwhile, the organizers of the Australian Open said they would no longer be banning fans from wearing T-shirts expressing support for Peng Shuai, the Chinese former world doubles No. 1 who has been largely incommunicado after accusing a former vice premier of sexual assault.

The U-turn came after tennis legend Martina Navratilova hit out at Tennis Australia for “capitulating” to Beijing, after the organization said it wouldn’t allow “political statements” at its events, prompting calls for an investigation into possible influence via the event’s Chinese sponsors.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.