PLA Naval deterrence

The Chinese PLA Navy has reportedly ramped up training exercises and patrols in and near the South China Sea amid the recent tensions in the region caused by the Philippines’ continuous provocations.

A naval task force featuring landing ships the Danxiashan, the Laotieshan and the Lushan recently carried out a four-day all-weather full-course combat exercise in the South China Sea, as the warships practiced air defense, alongside berthing and personnel rescuing, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Saturday.

Observers said these landing ships are of the Type 072 and Type 073 series, which are smaller than the PLA Navy’s Type 071 amphibious landing ship and Type 075 amphibious assault ship.

While the larger amphibious vessels can carry more troops and equipment and release them at a certain distance away from the shore, the smaller landing ships can conduct grounding operations directly on islands and reefs, giving the latter special roles to play, a Chinese military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Sunday.

For example, Type 072 series landing ships have participated in multiple major military operations, including the building of the maritime observation station on Yongshu Jiao (also known as Yongshu Reef) in the Nansha Qundao (also known as the Nansha Islands) in the South China Sea in 1988, thepaper.cn reported.

The drills came after Philippine media reported the presence of a Type 071 amphibious landing ship and a Type 075 amphibious assault ship near the Nansha Qundao this month, as the PLA Navy has reportedly its vast amphibious arsenal deployed in the region.

Amphibious vessels are not the only forces the PLA Navy has deployed in the South China Sea, as it has also sent some of its most powerful surface warships to the region for drills and patrols.

The armed forces of the Philippines on Friday confirmed the transit of four PLA Navy warships headed by the Type 055 large destroyer Dalian through the Balabac Strait on Wednesday, Philippine media outlet the Daily Tribune reported on Saturday.

The Philippine side said that the Balabac Strait, connecting the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea, “is commonly used by international vessels.”

Earlier this month, official Chinese media revealed that three other Type 055s, widely believed to be the world’s most powerful destroyer, the Xianyang, the Zunyi and the Yan’an, had also recently conducted round-the-clock long-endurance combat exercises in the South China Sea.

This means that all four Type 055 large destroyers currently in service with the navy of the PLA Southern Theater Command facing the South China Sea were sailing in or near the South China Sea recently.

China gathers naval leaders worldwide to discuss maritime security while US conducts drills to ‘destabilize S. China Sea’

April 22, 2024May 6, 2024 Ms. Cat

US and Philippines launch Balikatan joint military drills in South China Sea

This year’s staging of Balikatan, the allies’ largest annual military drill, will include a joint sail in the disputed South China Sea outside the Philippines’ territorial waters. The French navy, a first-time Balikatan participant, and the Australian navy will also join the manoeuvres.

While the US and the Philippines resumed joint naval patrols in the area last year, and the US has in the past sailed there with other allies and partners, it will be the first time that the Balikatan drills have extended beyond 12 nautical miles off the Philippine coast and into waters claimed by China.

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Six Philippine coast guard vessels will also participate in the drill, the first time the service — which has been at the forefront of frequent clashes with China over the past year — has been included in a military exercise.

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Another closely watched component of the drills will be the Strategic Mid-Range Fires missile system, known as Typhon, which has a range of up to 2,500km. The US Army airlifted the system to the Philippines this month, the first such deployment in the Indo-Pacific. Intermediate-range ground-launched missiles had been banned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, but the pact collapsed in 2019 after both the US and Russia left it.

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Troops will also practise tracking and targeting air and missile threats, retaking enemy-occupied islands in the Philippines’ far north, just south of Taiwan, and sinking a ship off the coast facing the South China Sea, expanding on drills last year.

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The exercise coincides with an annual conference by China’s Navy, which will be attended by senior military officers including from the US. It also comes as US secretary of state Antony Blinken is heading to China on Wednesday in the two countries’ latest effort to manage tense relations.

Henry Kissinger makes surprise visit to China, meets defense minister

July 19, 2023July 19, 2023 Ms. Cat

Former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, the 100-year-old who was at the heart of the United States’ rapprochement with China half a century ago, has made a surprise visit to Beijing.
Henry Kissinger makes surprise visit to China, meets defense minister

Video via Activist News Network

Senior Chinese diplomat meets with Henry Kissinger

Chinese defense minister meets with Henry Kissinger in Beijing

Macron rejects ‘confrontation’ as he relaunches Asia strategy

November 20, 2022November 20, 2022 Ms. Cat

Macron rejects ‘confrontation’ as he relaunches Asia strategy

“We don’t believe in hegemony, we don’t believe in confrontation, we believe in stability,” Macron said.

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Macron said a coordinated response was needed to tackle the overlapping crises facing the international community — from climate change to economic turmoil triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“Our Indo-Pacific strategy is how to provide dynamic balance in this environment,” he said.

“How to provide precisely a sort of stability and equilibrium which could not be the hegemony of one of those, could not be the confrontation of the two major powers.”

The Indo-Pacific Strategy doesn’t sound as innocent as Macron makes it out to be:

The new US Indo-Pacific Strategy document released in February has two interesting components, one overt and one covert. The document overtly declares the US is an “Indo-Pacific power.” Covertly, its aim is to “tighten the noose around China.” Arguably, minus the military might, China’s nearly a decade-long “Belt and Road Initiative” cannot be perceived as a grand national strategy aimed at controlling Eurasia or the Asia Pacific or any region for that matter. Yet the BRI is mythologized into such a geostrategic game-changer that it has rattled the US and its allies in the Asia Pacific. The BRI, at best, is nothing more than a mere geopolitical overland and maritime “chessboard” based on trade and investment.
BRI and the ‘Indo-Pacific’ Strategy: Geopolitical vs. Geostrategic