Chinese Air Force drills in South China Sea and Western Pacific, calls exercises 'rehearsals for future wars'

The Chinese Air Force has conducted a series of exercises in the contested South China Sea and the Western Pacific, where it sent fighter jets and bombers through Okinawa's Miyako Strait on Friday, labeling the exercises "rehearsals for future wars."

In a statement Sunday, the air force said it had dispatched H-6K bombers and Su-30 and Su-35 fighters, as well as other aircraft, for separate combat training missions in an unspecified area of the South China Sea and through the Miyako Strait between Okinawa and Miyako Island.

It did not say when the exercises took place, but Japan's Defense Ministry said Friday that it had scrambled fighters after four H-6K bombers, two fighters and two information-gathering planes flew through the strait.