China commissions frigate for long distance surveillance

BEIJING: China on Saturday commissioned a long range surveillance frigate to beef up its presence in the South China Sea.

The ship named Yueyang is capable of long-range surveillance, air defence and anti-submarine operations, the state run Xinhua news agency reported.

At a ceremony held in Sanya, a port city in south China's Hainan Province, Jiang Weilie Commander of the South China Sea fleet, raised a People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) flag and endorsed a naming certificate for the naval unit that received the frigate, said the media reports.

According to white-paper published by the Chinese authorities, the PLAN has been training different formations of combined task forces composed of new types of destroyers, frigates, ocean-going replenishment ships and shipborne helicopters to increase it blue-water capabilities.

China has scaled up its naval operations in South China Sea, after Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei along with Taiwan contested its claims of sovereignty over it.