Overview
- The PLA Southern Theater Command said a bomber formation conducted a patrol on Friday in the South China Sea and publicly announced the mission on Sunday.
- Senior Colonel Tian Junli warned the Philippines to stop provoking incidents and escalating tensions in statements carried by Chinese state media.
- The Philippines, the United States, and Japan held the 13th Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity on Friday and Saturday to strengthen maritime cooperation.
- Assets included Philippine frigates BRP Jose Rizal and BRP Antonio Luna, the US Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, and Japan’s destroyer JS Akebono with an SH-60K helicopter.
- Global Times reported it was the first time the theater command disclosed organizing a bomber formation in response to such joint patrols, as Japan separately tracked Chinese warships transiting the Osumi Strait into the Pacific.