China flexed military muscle with East Asian naval activity, sources say

BEIJING – China flexed its military muscle earlier in May by sending an unusually large number of naval and coast guard vessels through a swathe of East Asian waters, according to security documents and officials, in moves that have unnerved regional capitals.

Since early May, China deployed fleets larger than usual – including navy, coast guard and other ships – near Taiwan, the southern Japanese islands, and the East and South China Seas, according to three regional security officials and documents of regional military activities reviewed by Reuters.

On May 21 and May 27, for instance, China deployed nearly 60 and more than 70 ships, respectively, around three-quarters of them naval, the documents show. These included guided-missile frigates, destroyers and coast guard boats.

Beijing also dispatched two aircraft carrier groups, with the Shandong now in the busy waterway of the South China Sea and the Liaoning off the south-eastern coast of Taiwan, the documents show.

“They are exerting pressure on the whole of the first island chain amid global geopolitical uncertainties,” said one security official, referring to waters stretching from Japan through Taiwan, the Philippines and on to Borneo, enclosing the seas around China’s coast.

“They are trying to reinforce their dominance,” the source said, adding that drills earlier in May by the Liaoning, the oldest of China’s three aircraft carriers, simulated attacks on foreign ships and aircraft around the East China Sea and Yellow Sea.

There was an “obvious” stepped-up Chinese naval presence in May, added a second source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as did the first, citing the sensitivity of the intelligence assessment.

“China clearly wants to show these are its home waters, and it can operate when and where it wants,” the source said.

China’s Defence Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Live-fire drills

Over the past two weeks, China declared several live-fire drill areas off its coast, including one last week that directly faced south-western Taiwan.

On May 21, Chinese state television showed images of amphibious drills in the southern province of Fujian, across the strait from Taiwan, but did not give an exact location. This week, Japan has been tracking the Liaoning and its accompanying warships through the southern Japanese islands and into the Western Pacific.

China seems to be trying to improve its capacity to operate far from the Chinese coast, said Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi.

“The Japanese government intends to keep a close eye on relevant movement and do its utmost in carrying out monitoring and surveillance activities,” he told reporters on May 28.

Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said the ships’ activities were in line with international law and practice and that Japan should “look at them objectively and rationally”.

China has kept up its stand-off with the Philippines in the South China Sea, where its Foreign Ministry on May 23 urged the Philippines to immediately stop “infringement and provocation”.

The Philippine Navy’s spokesman on South China Sea issues, Rear-Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, told Reuters that China’s “illegal presence” in the maritime zones of South-east Asian states “has been disturbing the peace in the region and is contrary to pronouncements of its ‘peaceful rise’”.

The spike in Chinese military activity has also come as Taiwan President Lai Ching-te in May marked his one-year anniversary in office. China has staged

three major rounds of war games

since the inauguration of Mr Lai, whom it calls a “separatist”.

On May 28, Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said the Liaoning was off the island’s south-east coast, adding that Taiwan would raise its combat preparedness in line with the threat level. REUTERS