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China’s naval moves show the scale of its ambition
Its flexing of its growing maritime muscle comes amid questions about the reliability of US backup.
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China's Jiangkai-class frigate Hengyang sailing at an undisclosed location in a picture taken on Feb 11 and released on Feb 21 by the Australian Defence Force.
PHOTO: AFP
Karishma Vaswani
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In the past two weeks, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted live-fire naval drills in the international waters off Australia, New Zealand and Vietnam, and shooting drills in the Taiwan Strait. These exercises are a sign of China’s growing confidence as a maritime power.
This show of military might is a signal to its closest neighbours that they’ll have to start relying on one another, or boost their own defence capabilities far more than they originally thought. They can’t expect to depend on the US for backup.
