Xi Jinping inspects South China Sea naval drill

China’s President Xi Jinping has inspected naval forces carrying out a giant exercise in the contested South China Sea.

The naval drills – held near China’s South China Sea island province of Hainan involved 48 warships, 76 fighter jets and 10,000 sailors, reports the BBC.

READ MORE: Leaders call for calm over disputed sea

READ MORE: US sails warship into South China Sea

READ MORE: Turnbull admits to rising tensions with China

Xi said the military exercises underscore the Asian superpower’s growing capabilities in defending its maritime interests.

He declared China’s need for a well-armed navy had "never been more pressing".

Xi’s comments come in the leadup to China’s planned live-fire exercise next week in the narrow strait separating it from Taiwan.

Chinese state TV screened footage of the president addressing naval personnel aboard a destroyer before observing jets taking off from an aircraft carrier.

State media described the drill as the biggest of its kind.

It’s the latest show of force by naval forces in the hotly disputed South China Seas.

On Tuesday, the US aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt sailed through the region.

The nuclear-powered carrier, and its 65 supersonic F18 jets, spy planes and helicopters, was en route to Manila in the Philippines.

Another US carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, patrolled the contested waters last month, taking part in anti-submarine drills in the South China Sea 

China's Maritime Safety Administration says the exercises began on Wednesday and would last through the end of Friday.

China is building new vessels at a rapid pace to equip its navy, coast guard and maritime law enforcement agencies, including its first entirely domestically-built aircraft carrier.

It claims virtually the entire resource-rich South China Sea, through which an estimated $5 trillion in global trade passes annually, and has constructed installations on artificial islands to enlarge its military footprint.

With AP