As of: March 6, 2024, 8:40 p.m
By: Patrick Mayer
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The Chinese Air Force releases new photos of the modified Xian H-6 long-range bomber.
It should also be able to carry atomic bombs.
Beijing – For China it is a machine that is potentially designed as a nuclear bomber: the Xian H-6.
According to the American news magazine
Newsweek,
Beijing has now had its military share new photos of the strategic long-range bomber (see link to
Newsweek
), including martial lines about an exercise in the east of the huge country.
China: Beijing shares photos of Xian H-6 long-range bomber
“The commander issued the flight order and several types of fighter jets rushed into the target airspace one after another to conduct ground bombardment,” the People's Liberation Army (PLA) said on March 1 on the X-like social media platform Weibo.
"Recently, a specific aviation division of the Eastern Theater Command Air Force organized flight training at multiple airports, multiple aircraft types and multiple subjects," the Chinese armed forces said, according to the report.
Accordingly, China is allegedly increasingly trying to bring the most modern version, the Xian H-6N, into the spotlight of geopolitical actors.
The significantly modified variant of the long-range bomber is intended to differentiate itself from previous models with a greatly increased range, the ability to refuel in the air and a facility for deploying a drone or a ballistic missile.
The Xian H-6N was presented to the public for the first time in 2019.
A Chinese Xian H-6 long-range bomber.
© IMAGO / ITAR-TASS
Off Taiwan: Beijing has its air force patrolling the South China Sea
And: The H-6N is a modernization of the H-6K, introduced in 2009, which, according to
Newsweek
, is known to be capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
The information cannot be independently verified.
Explosive: As the report continues, the bombers were repeatedly actively involved in operations in which the island state of Taiwan was encircled by Chinese air squadrons and/or in which Chinese squadrons approached Japanese airspace and in the politically sensitive waters of the South China Sea patrolled.
In the very edge of the Pacific Ocean there are repeated military incidents between the neighboring states.
China and the Philippines, for example, dispute territorial claims in the waters.
The latest example: As Jay Tarriela, spokesman for the Philippine Coast Guard, explained this Tuesday (March 5), Chinese Coast Guard ships had blocked Philippine ships on a disputed reef earlier this week and carried out dangerous maneuvers.
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China lays claim to Taiwan: USA positions itself as a protecting power
Also explosive: The socialist People's Republic of China does not recognize the democratic Republic of China, i.e. Taiwan.
To put things in perspective: Representatives of the bourgeois Republic of China retreated to the island of Taiwan after the defeat in the civil war against the Communist Party.
Beijing repeatedly publicly declares that it wants to integrate Taiwan (supposedly legally) into its national territory - if necessary with military means.
In this situation, the United States sees itself as Taiwan's protective power.
Recurring mutual rhetorical skirmishes are followed with international concern.
After all, both the USA and China are considered nuclear powers.
The political muscle flexing is associated with considerable risk: at the end of October 2023, for example, there was almost a collision between a Chinese fighter jet and a US Air Force B-52 long-range bomber over the South China Sea.
Accordingly, Newsweek
interprets
the Chinese intention behind the offensive presentation of the Xian H-6 "as an open demonstration of Beijing's political resolve."
Xian H-6 long-range bomber: China and Russia work together
Cooperation with Russia cannot be ruled out, and not only because at least one Xian H-6 held a joint exercise with the Russian air forces over the Pacific in June 2023.
Because: The aircraft is originally a version of Moscow's Soviet bomber Tu-16, built under license by China, which once again documents the cooperation between the two countries.
(pm)