Nothing wrong with South China Sea Chinese naval drills – Philippine military

“We’re not threatened at all because it’s in worldwide waters…” This was stressed by AFP spokesperson Col. Restituto Padilla Wednesday.

Beijing said it conducted air and sea drills in the South China Sea as it stakes an increasingly assertive claim to virtually the whole sea despite rival claims by neighbors.

The exercise involves more than 100 naval vessels, dozens of aircrafts, several missile launch battalions of the Second Artillery Corps, as well as unknown number of information warfare troops, navy sources said.

Reports from the Zhuhai Airshow held in southern China’s Guangdong province last year indicated that Poly was developing the WB-1 for naval applications.

This, too, he added, is why Southeast Asian countries as well as the United States have been encouraging China to be transparent with its military exercises “so that all of their motives, all of their activities, will not be questioned”.

“We have been very transparent whenever we have exercises we tried to invite observers… to say and indicate that what we are doing is aboveboard and that we are not threatening anyone. So, having initiated that action in agreement with all other allies, we are hoping that other nations, China included, will be as transparent … so that there are better opportunities for discussion and dialogue instead of no connection at all”.

China statements the majority of the actually energy-rich South China Sea, during which five dollars zillion in ship-borne buy and sell goes yearly, and junk the competing states of Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan.

The Philippines, meanwhile, is planning to increase its defense budget for 2016.