China conducting 'training drills' in Pacific

(SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST) The People’s Liberation Army Navy will conduct drills in the western Pacific Ocean during the Lunar New Year holiday after finishing a regular patrol mission in the South China Sea.

The PLA Daily reported yesterday that a North Sea Fleet blue-water training flotilla had passed through the Bashi Channel in the South China Sea, between Mavudis Island, the northernmost of the Philippines’ Batanes Islands, and Orchid Island, on Thursday.

The flotilla was on its way to the western Pacific for another training mission. The front-page report failed to detail the kind of training drills that will be conducted.