China puts several commercial aircraft at risk with military drills in the Tasman Sea

China raised alarm in Australia and New Zealand after it conducted military live-fire drills in the Tasman Sea, which separates the two countries. The communist regime's drills forced several commercial aircraft with passengers on board to divert their flight paths.

Specifically, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, which warned of the exercises, deployed three vessels, a frigate, a cruiser and a replenishment ship,  for new ballistic launch drills.

The authorities of the two island nations were quick to react. New Zealand Defense Minister Judith Collins criticized Beijing for not giving enough warning and endangering commercial aircraft flying over the airspace at the time.

"There was a warning to civil aviation flights that was basically a very short amount of notice - a couple of hours - as opposed to what we would consider best practice, which is 12 to 24 hours' notice so that aircraft are not having to be quickly diverted when they're on the wing," Collins said, speaking statements to public broadcaster Radio New Zealand (RNZ).

"We don't know what their intention is, but we're taking them at face value that they are undertaking normal transits when it comes to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, that they're not breaking the law. But as we've said, it is always better to give a lot more notice when it comes to live firing," the New Zealand minister added.

The Australian government was less forceful in its reproaches to China. Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said they had launched an investigation to find out what happened in the Tasman Sea.

The Chinese communist regime has been conducting military exercises in the Pacific Ocean for years. Those in the Tasman Sea are less common, as most of the drills Xi Jinping conducts to show off his arsenal are concentrated in the South China Sea, near the coast of Taiwan.