Ajeyo LAST UPDATED: Aug. 27, 2020, 12:13 p.m.

Beijing: Even as the whole world is busy fighting the coronavirus pandemic, China is engaged in flexing its military muscle and raking up border disputes with all its neighbours.


On Thursday, a newspaper said that the Chinese military fired two missiles into the South China Sea, including one targeting a dummy warship. Military analysts suggest that these exercises may have been developed to attack US forces.

The DF-26B and DF-21D missiles on Wednesday targeted an area between the southern island province of Hainan and the Paracel Islands.

The South China Morning Post newspaper published the report in Hong Kong, citing unnamed sources close to the Chinese military. However, the ministries of defense and foreign affairs in Beijing did not respond to requests for confirmation.

Beijing's dispute with Washington and its southern neighbors over control of the South China Sea, one of the world's busiest trade routes, is growing rapidly. This year the Donald Trump administration rejected most of Beijing's claims to sovereignty over the disputed sea, parts of which are also claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines, and other governments.

The PLA is engaged in a military exercises in the South China Sea, but the Americans U2 spy planes in the region in a warning to the Chinese. The Chinese responded by claiming that if they wanted, they could have targeted and destroyed these aircraft, but chose not to do so.

The DF-21 is reported to be extremely accurate and is believed to have been developed to target US aircraft carriers in case of a potential conflict between the United States and China.

China has spent much of the last two decades trying to develop missiles, fighter jets, nuclear submarines and other weapons which will to allow it to expand its military power beyond Chinese shores.