Advertisement
US-China relations
ChinaMilitary

Growing rivalry between China and US plays out in military war games

  • While the PLA focuses on ‘countering American capabilities’, the Pentagon is increasingly using the China threat in its drills

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
US Navy sailors take part in a drill during a joint exercise with Asean members in the Gulf of Thailand at the start of the month. Photo: AFP/US Navy
Liu Zhen

As the People’s Liberation Army focuses on countering the US, the Pentagon has increasingly used China – labelled by Washington as a strategic rival and military threat – as the adversary in its war games.

The latest was a huge sealift exercise off Virginia this week, with 28 vessels put to the test carrying the US Army and Marine Corps and their equipment to a major conflict overseas – possibly against China or Russia.

Meanwhile, US and Japanese troops carried out a joint drill this week using land-to-ship missiles to attack an enemy ship at Kumamoto, in Kyushu, reportedly “keeping in mind China’s increasing maritime activities”, according to local media.

Advertisement
They followed five days of US-Asean naval exercises at the start of the month, the first such drills between the United States and the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations members. Four of those countries – Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam – have territorial disputes with Beijing over the South China Sea.
In a separate drill last month, US Marines conducted airfield- and island-seizure drills in the East and South China seas, near the Philippines and around the Japanese island of Okinawa.

Observers said the Pentagon and the PLA had been increasingly focused on each other in their war game scenarios.

Advertisement
Select Voice
Choose your listening speed
Get through articles 2x faster
1.25x
250 WPM
Slow
Average
Fast
1.25x