Chinese warships have recently deployed to far seas for drills as the East Asian military power expands its reach beyond the country’s coastline to signal its naval strength.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Why It Matters
As part of efforts to build a “world-class” military to challenge its top rival, the United States, China is modernizing its navy. Beijing fields more than 370 ships and submarines—including three aircraft carriers—enabling it to project military power across the western Pacific, where the Pentagon maintains forward-deployed forces as a countermeasure.
China has regularly sent vessels farther afield in recent years, with notable examples including last year’s circumnavigation of Australia and the simultaneous deployment of two aircraft carriers in waters east of the first island chain, which runs from Japan to the Philippines through Taiwan and is intended to limit Chinese military activity.
What To Know
In a set of photos released on Saturday, China’s Defense Ministry said the amphibious assault ship CNS Hainan, designed to project land forces from sea to shore during an island-landing campaign, led a flotilla during far-seas training in late December.
The four-vessel Chinese naval task force also included the destroyer CNS Yan’an, the frigate CNS Yueyang and the comprehensive supply ship CNS Luomahu, the Defense Ministry added, without disclosing the exact location or date of the maritime training.
However, it can be confirmed that the Chinese flotilla was the one tracked by Australia while operating in the Philippine Sea early in December, with the Hainan, the Yan’an and the Luomahu identified by hull numbers in satellite imagery captured at the time.
The Hainan later took part in a Chinese blockade-style war game near Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own, supporting a simulated seizure of the island’s key ports.
The newly released imagery shows the Hainan-led landing flotilla sailing in formation, transferring supplies between vessels, operating a close-in weapon system designed to defend against missile strikes, and launching helicopters and a landing craft air cushion.
On Monday, the Chinese navy released footage showing the destroyer CNS Kunming conducting far-sea drills at an undisclosed location to demonstrate its combat readiness.
The Kunming can be seen in the undated video firing missiles, with at least one hitting a surface target. It remains unclear whether the missile is an anti-ship weapon, a type of armament that helps China deter U.S. military intervention in the event of a conflict.
What People Are Saying
The Pentagon’s Chinese military power report said: “The PLAN [People’s Liberation Army Navy] maintains a large reserve of operationally ready ships, which will enable it to expand its persistent patrol presence and surge forces during crises and war.”
Alex Luck, an Australia-based naval analyst, wrote in a recent review of the Chinese navy: “The PLAN surface fleet already benefits from veritable quantitative advantages projecting power into the waters around the People’s Republic of China. Meanwhile, qualitative and numerical growth of PLAN does not appear to slow down. Such observations will presumably compel neighboring states to increasingly revise their own force postures.”
What Happens Next
China is expected to continue deploying warships to far seas to flex its growing naval power against the U.S. and its allies in the western Pacific. It remains to be seen how the U.S. will bolster its presence in the region while focused on tensions in other parts of the world.
Read the full article here
