China plans 100 military exercises this year amid increase in territorial disputes with neighbours

China’s military is staging live-fire exercises in the country’s west as part of a series of drills involving more than 140,000 troops, state media reported on Tuesday.

The “Joint Action-2015D” exercises in the Chengdu Military Region are the first of five such drills involving units from the army, navy, air force, missile corps and other branches of the armed forces, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

The drills are the latest in about 100 joint exercises planned for this year. They began last month, but moved into the live-firing stage on Monday, Xinhua said.

The 2.3 million-member People’s Liberation Army has stepped-up both the rigour and frequency of training as it emphasises more realistic scenarios for fighting and winning battles around China’s periphery. New stress has been placed on exercises integrating different branches of the armed forces, with a special command on joint exercises set up last year.

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That includes recent live-firing exercises in the South China Sea where China is involved in sharpening territorial disputes with other nations and has embarked on a massive programme of creating islands out of shoals and reefs that could operate as military outposts.