China has despatched H-6 long-range bombers to Woody Island, its strategic army base within the disputed Paracel Islands, in what has been broadly interpreted as a present of pressure forward of the Shangri-La Dialogue, an influential regional safety convention in Singapore.
Satellite tv for pc pictures taken between Could 17 and Could 23 by the US firm Maxar Applied sciences verified a minimum of two H-6 bombers current on the island, joined by a KJ-500 airborne early warning airplane and Y-20 cargo planes. The deployment mirrored Beijing’s try to claim management over the disputed South China Sea and represented strategic intent directed at regional rivals and america.
The timing of the deployment, mere days forward of protection leaders comparable to US Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin and French President Emmanuel Macron, who’re set to ship speeches on the Shangri-La Dialogue, has brought about suspicion of Beijing’s intentional messaging. The motion is supposed to bolster China’s army presence and deterrence energy in gentle of heightened tensions inside the area.
Strategic Stronghold In Dispute
Woody Island, or Yongxing Island in Chinese language, is the most important island among the many Paracel Islands and has been a key fulcrum in Beijing’s territorial disputes for a very long time. The island is residence to a 3,000-meter runway, fortified hangars, and radar amenities, which make up the middle of China’s South China Sea militarisation. The realm is partly claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam, and Beijing has exercised de facto management for the reason that Seventies.
China claimed sovereignty over all however a number of miles of the South China Sea, a declare denied by a 2016 worldwide tribunal choice below the United Nations Conference on the Legislation of the Sea (UNCLOS). In defiance of worldwide criticism, Beijing has pressed on increasing its army presence via island-building and ahead deployment.
Tensions rise within the South China Sea
Chinese language H-6 bombers noticed on Woody Island, escalation in China’s militarisation of the South China Sea@susanmtehrani reviews pic.twitter.com/pkfegLY6Ij
— WION (@WIONews) Could 28, 2025
H-6: Chilly Battle Relic Turned Fashionable Strike Platform
The H-6 bomber, developed by Xi’an Plane Industrial Company, is a modernised model of the Soviet-era Tupolev Tu-16. First launched into China’s arsenal in 1958, the plane has undergone intensive upgrades, remodeling it from a Chilly Battle relic into a complicated platform for long-range precision strikes, maritime interdiction, and nuclear deterrence.
Fashionable fashions such because the H-6K and H-6N are fitted with enhanced D-30KP-2 turbofans, trendy avionics, and in-flight refuelling. The H-6K will be outfitted to hold seven CJ-10A cruise missiles or YJ-12 supersonic sea-attack missiles, whereas the H-6N mannequin is able to carrying air-launched ballistic missiles or unmanned aerial automobiles, offering elevated operational flexibility.
Army analysts put the vary of the H-6K at greater than 2,200 miles, which suggests it could possibly attain strategic U.S. and allied bases all through the First Island Chain, together with Guam and Okinawa.