International military collaboration duty of China's military: spokesman

Chinese soldiers help to unload a military helicopter from an aerotransport at Khartoum airport on June 11, 2017. [Photo: Xinhua/Li Ziheng]

Recent international military collaborations by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) are the duty of the armed forces of a major power, a Ministry of National Defense (MOD) spokesperson said Monday.

Wu Qian, spokesperson for the MOD, was responding to a question on recent naval activity around the world during a press briefing.

"China's armed forces have been actively expanding their military cooperation," Wu said, referring to the PLA's participation in international peace-keeping, anti-piracy, humanitarian aid, disaster relief among others.

It showed the responsibility that the PLA accepts as the armed forces of a major country, he continued.

The spokesperson stressed that PLA warships and planes, as those of other militaries, have the same rights to navigate in and overfly non-territorial waters.