(VOVworld) - A Chinese military aircraft has for the first time publicly landed at a new airport on Fiery Cross Reef of Spratly islands claimed by Vietnam, Chinese state media said on Monday. The move sparks concerns that China could base its fighter jets there.

Satellite image dated April 2015 of an airstrip under construction on the Fiery Cross Reef in the South China Sea. Photograph: Reuters

In a front-page story, the People's Liberation Army Daily said a military aircraft on patrol over the East Sea on Sunday received an emergency call to land at Fiery Cross Reef to evacuate three seriously ill workers. They were then carried by a military aircraft back to Hainan island for treatment.

The airway on Fiery Cross Reef is one of the three airways that China illegally built in Vietnam’s Spratly archipelago. A representative of Vietnamese Foreign Ministry has handed a diplomatic note to a representative of the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi to protest the move, saying it seriously violates Vietnam’s sovereignty over Spratly archipelago and runs counter to the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea. Vietnam urged China to stop similar acts and take specific measures to contribute to peace, security, and stability in the East Sea.