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Elite airborne attack on last day of China-Russia war games Elite troops from China and Russia staged a mock airborne attack on an enemy position as unprecedented joint exercises wrapped up Thursday, state media reported. Eighty-six Chinese and Russian shock troops parachuted into battle in eastern China's Shandong province at the end of the eight-day "Peace Mission 2005" exercise, the Xinhua news agency said. "Although the enemy troops still put up a desperate struggle, their failure had become a foregone conclusion," Xinhua said of the drill outside the city of Weifang. Xinhua did not specify who the enemy was supposed to be, but China's airborne units are believed to be training almost exclusively in order to be ready to strike Taiwan if called upon to do so. Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan, his Russian counterpart Sergei Ivanov and senior defense officials from Central Asia were observing the drill, the news agency said. The Russian side contributed a reinforced company from the 76th Division, a unit with extensive experience fighting in Chechnya, to Thursday's maneuvers, according to Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency. The maneuvers saw the deployment of Beriev/Ilyushin A-50 early warning aircraft from the Russian military, Xinhua said. Some observers see this as significant as China is reported to have sought to buy this aircraft from Russia after a planned purchase of a similar Israeli plane failed to materialize, reportedly over US objections. China is believed to be actively pursuing improved early warning capabilities to boost its power in the air and improve its own chances of winning a war in the Taiwan Straits. Over the past week, primetime TV news in China has been showing dramatic footage from the war games, which began in Russia's Pacific port city of Vladivostok and later moved to China's east coast. Images of landing craft moving onshore with blazing guns while helicopter gunships pulverized the beach defenses have been interpreted as a clear warning to Taiwan, the independence-minded island China claims as its own. Russian media have said China paid for the entire exercise, reflecting the high value attached to it by Beijing. |
