Kunpeng spreads its wings for 90,000 miles, and our "Kunpeng" will fly higher and farther in the future - Colonel Wu Qian once described our large domestic military transport aircraft Y-20.
Since the first trip abroad to transport relief supplies to Pakistan in 2020, the Y-20 has completed its outbound transport missions more than once, and just a few hours ago, the second batch of 6 Y-20s has also arrived in Serbia, and before that, 6 Y-20s have completed the first delivery tasks.
12 Y-20s have gone overseas to carry out missions, which is the largest number of Y-20 aircraft in history to carry out missions overseas.
What is a Strategic Air Force? This is the Strategic Air Force! The 12 Y-20s sent to Europe is unprecedented and record-breaking, marking an important improvement in the long-range strategic delivery capability of the Chinese Air Force.
It is not easy to complete such a mission across the airspace of many countries in Europe and Asia, and first of all, a lot of coordination work is required in advance, because the flight has to pass through many countries, and the Chinese Y-20 fleet has flown over the airspace of at least two NATO member countries - Turkey and Bulgaria, as well as the airspace of some other European countries.
Especially considering that the current situation in Europe continues to fall into tension due to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the large-scale dispatch of the PLA strategic fleet naturally needs to communicate and negotiate with the countries along the route in advance and obtain the approval of these countries, so as not to cause unnecessary strategic misjudgment.
In addition, long-distance transcontinental flights are particularly challenging to the ability of aircraft to be repaired and supported, as aircraft need to be refueled on the ground, which means that logistics must be interlinked, and various emergency options need to be comprehensive. This was a great test for the Y-20's long-range delivery capability, but with the landing of the second batch of fighters, the Y-20 successfully completed the task and handed over a perfect answer sheet to the motherland.
The Western media also speculated about the large-scale dispatch of the PLA's strategic fleet, and the Associated Press claimed in a Report on April 10 that this was a "show of force" carried out by the PLA in Europe to "show muscles", and even inexplicably linked the tension between Serbia and Kosovo to the Y-20 operation.
In response to this, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, in response to this matter, issued a soul torture question to the US media: When the United States sold weapons to Europe and the Taiwan region, did you care about undermining regional peace and stability?
First of all, it should be noted that the Y-20 operation is in accordance with international law, and Serbia and China have extensive cooperation at the military level, and have purchased military equipment such as drones and missiles from China. It is reasonable that we have delivered to Serbia the weapons and equipment that we have already ordered in our transport aircraft, and it is not the turn of other countries to make irresponsible remarks about this matter.
Moreover, the reason why Serbia and Kosovo are in constant conflict is the United States, and the long-term turmoil in the Balkan Peninsula is, in the final analysis, the residual poison left by the West here, and NATO has also intervened militarily to disturb the regional situation. We have always adhered to the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, and this account cannot be calculated on China's head at all.
What the United States is really worried about is not the so-called stability of the regional situation, but the increasing strategic delivery capability of the Chinese Air Force, and The gradual development trend of China in the field of arms sales, including the long-distance delivery of a new generation of air defense system FK-3 air defense missile system (a foreign trade development variant of the Hongqi 22) to Serbia.
For a long time, some countries in Europe that do not yet have large-scale weapons research and development capabilities have mostly purchased weapons from the United States, but Serbia not only cooperates closely with China in the economic and trade fields, but also gives military purchase orders to China and Russia, which naturally makes the United States feel very dissatisfied.
When the US media reported on this matter, they especially mentioned that Serbia is seeking to join the European Union, with the intention of exerting pressure on Serbia and thus undermining the friendly cooperation between China and Serbia. But this is doomed to be futile, the friendly relations between China and Serbia can stand the test, from economic and trade cooperation to anti-epidemic support to weapons delivery, the scope of cooperation between the two countries is getting wider and wider, Serbia and China are close to each other is the right choice based on their own interests.
Just a few days ago, when Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke with Serbian Foreign Minister Serakovic, the latter also made an important commitment to the Chinese side, expressing firm support for China's maintenance of sovereignty and territorial integrity, and willing to deepen "hardcore friendship" with China and work together to cope with challenges.
For Serbia, the delivery of weapons to Serbia by the Chinese Air Force across thousands of miles means that China's deep friendship and firm support for Serbia are as always. For ourselves, the continuous long-distance operations are also a special way of "training troops", which tests the strategic delivery capability of the Chinese Air Force, accumulates valuable experience for our army to carry out major international military operations, and lays a solid foundation for the PLA to carry out the next step of joint combat operations.