Beijing’s latest joint naval drills with Russia in South China Sea ‘just symbolic gesture’: experts

China and Russia’s annual joint naval drills in the South China Sea this week have been widely seen as a move to demonstrate their continuing ability to counter the United States’ influence in the region.

But military experts said the eight-day exercises, which began on Monday, were merely a symbolic gesture – rather than “sabre-rattling” – because the two countries were holding their war games in waters off Guangdong province – part of the South China Sea without territorial disputes.

Neither nation had sent its latest warships to take part in the exercises, the experts noted.

“Beijing doesn’t want to irritate Hanoi and Manila because Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc is visiting China, and the Philippines President Rodrigo ­Duterte is possibly visiting Beijing later this year,” Beijing-based naval expert Li Jie said.

The Permanent Court of ­Arbitration in The Hague on July 12 rejected Beijing’s claims over the South China Sea.