China Sending Fighter Jets to Thailand 08/13 09:20

   

   BANGKOK (AP) -- The Chinese air force is sending fighter jets and bombers to 
Thailand for a joint exercise with the Thai military on Sunday.

   The training will include air support, strikes on ground targets and small- 
and large-scale troop deployment, the Chinese Defense Ministry said in a 
statement posted on its website.

   China's expanding military activities in the Asia-Pacific region have 
alarmed the United States and its allies and form part of a growing strategic 
and economic competition that has inflamed tensions between the world's two 
largest economies.

   U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Thailand in June as part of an 
effort to strengthen what he called America's "unparalleled network of 
alliances and partnerships" in the region.

   The Falcon Strike exercise will be held at the Udorn Royal Thai Air Force 
Base in northern Thailand near the border with Laos. Thai fighter jets and 
airborne early warning aircraft from both countries will also take part.

   The training comes as the U.S. holds combat drills in Indonesia with 
Indonesia, Australia, Japan and Singapore in the largest iteration of the Super 
Garuda Shield exercises since they began in 2009.

   It also follows China's sending warships, missiles and aircraft into the 
waters and air around Taiwan in a threatening response to a visit by U.S. House 
Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the self-ruled island, which China claims as its 
territory.

   Kurt Campbell, a top advisor to President Joe Biden on the Indo-Pacific, 
said Friday that the U.S. would take resolute steps to support Taiwan, 
including sending warships and aircraft through the 160-kilometer (100-mile) 
wide waterway that separates Taiwan and China.

   "We'll continue to fly, sail and operate where international law allows, 
consistent with our longstanding commitment to freedom of navigation," he said 
in a call with reporters. "And that includes conducting standard air and 
maritime transits through the Taiwan Strait in the next few weeks."