In a statement the Director of the Hainan Province Maritime Safety Administration Ouyang Baokui said, “The drill was designed to enhance China’s capabilities for search and rescue, and improve emergency response competence in the South China Sea.”
“Programs of the drill included search-and-rescue at sea, emergency response to oil leakage, fire fighting at sea and anti-terrorism,” added Ouyang.
This is the fifth such SAR exercise organised by China’s Ministry of Communications and China Maritime Search and Rescue Centre since 2000 but the first to incorporate the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
The other exercises took place at the estuaries of the Pearl and Yangtze River and in the waters of Bohai Bay and the Yellow Sea.
