Chinese armed forces continue to ramp up coastal exercises by announcing further drills
- Latest exercise off coast of Guangdong means six overlapping military and coastguard exercises will be taking place next week
- Both China and the United States have stepped up activity in the region in recent months
China announced a further round of naval exercises in the South China Sea on Sunday as the United States also steps up its presence in the region.
The Guangdong bureau of China’s Maritime Safety Administration said the latest exercise would be held off the coast of the southern province between Monday and Saturday.
The previous day its Hainan bureau had announced a similar exercise off the coast of the neighbouring island at the same time.
Two other exercises to the east of the country – one in the Yellow Sea that finishes on Wednesday and a coastguard drill off the coast of Hebei that will run until the end of September – have also been announced in recent days.
Another two drills will take place in Bohai area, one on Monday and Tuesday and the other a week-long drill that finishes on Friday.
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The overlapping exercises continue a trend of intensified maritime activity at a time when the US is also flexing its muscles in the region.
“China has conducted exercises going from one region to another but simultaneous exercises in multiple theatres at a bigger scale is exceptional,” said Srinkath Kondapalli, a professor of Chinese studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
The USS Ronald Reagan and its carrier strike group returned to the South China Sea on Friday for a series of air defence exercises after a joint drill with Japan.
The US Navy also sent a destroyer, the USS Mustin, through the Taiwan Strait following the exercise with Japan in what America said was a demonstration of its commitment to a “free and open Indo-Pacific”.
The People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theatre Command, which covers the Taiwan Strait, said after the Mustin’s passage that the military was monitoring US activity and was on “high alert” to protect China’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
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On Sunday Brent Christensen, the de facto US envoy to Taiwan, became the first American representative to take part in commemorations of a 1958 attack on the Taiwanese-held island of Quemoy.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen also attended the annual military memorial service.
According to the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto embassy, Christensen also laid wreaths at a monument honouring two American soldiers who died in a 1954 Chinese attack on the island, which is also known as Kinmen.
Kondapalli said the latest exercise was relatively close to the Bashi channel, a disputed waterway between Taiwan and the Philippines, and “whoever dominates that can have easy access to the Western Pacific”.
He added: “In the past two or three years, the focus of China’s military exercises has centred on intimidating Taiwan.”
Qi Huaigao, a specialist in China’s maritime affairs at Fudan University in Shanghai, said that the coordinates delineating the area that these exercises will cover are in undisputed waters.
“I don’t think these drills are aimed at any maritime neighbours of China because none of them will go into disputed areas or waterways” Qi said.
