China holds Xinjiang anti-terrorism drill
BEIJING:CHINA deployed multiple aircraft including combat helicopters in a counter-terror drill in its restive northwestern region of Xinjiang this week.
It’s rare for governments to deploy air power against insurgents and Chinese state media reports said it was to test how quickly thousands of armed personnel could be transported to the region in case of an emergency.
As many 18 aircraft including eight helicopters were used in the drill, which saw soldiers carry out simulated drills in designated areas of the southern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Though a state media report on the exercise didn’t specify whether it was for the first time the People’s Liberation Army Airforce was being used in an anti-terror drill, a military expert indicated that it was indeed so.
Besides the army and the air force, the Xinjiang Armed Police Corp took part in the exercise.
“Directed by the Xinjiang Armed Police Corps and an unidentified army unit, eight helicopters and 10 civilian planes rapidly transported four groups involving thousands of armed patrols in designated areas including the prefectures of Kashgar, Hotan and Aksu on Monday,” the PLA Daily reported. “The three prefectures are located in southern Xinjiang an area mainly populated by eth nic Uyghur people, where terror ists have frequently attacked.”
The deployment of PLA Air force aircraft shows that the gov ernment wasn’t willing to take any chance against terror in a frontier province that borders multiple countries as well as Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.
“The joint drills were prob lem-solving-oriented and can effectively protect regional secu rity and stability, since the air force, including helicopters, was not in place in previous counter terrorism operations in Xinji ang,” Li Wei, an anti-terror expert at the China Institute of Contemporary Internationa