1.7 MILLION HOURS AT SEA
Both Washington and Beijing have significantly increased the volume of military exercises across Asia amid roiling tensions in recent years, though China’s drills still lag in scale and complexity, a study has found.
China’s state-backed Global Times newspaper said last year sending carrier groups into the waters of the Western Pacific was not only about flexing muscles around Taiwan, and that China’s navy needed to get used to operating far out at sea.
“China’s carrier battle group is facing not only the Taiwan authorities, but also the interference of external forces,” military expert Song Zhongping told the newspaper.
Four experts said the reports’ methodology was feasible and could provide valuable information, although they cautioned that it necessarily included some guesswork.
They also said direct comparisons on military exercise spending were difficult; no data was available, for instance, on how much the United States spent on such activities in 2023. But the US Department of Defense has proposed spending US$9.9 billion next year on the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, created to counter China’s military build-up.
Reuters could not independently confirm the accuracy of the Taiwanese estimate.
China has stepped up military incursions and war games near Taiwan.
In 2023, Chinese aircraft, including J-10 fighter jets, H-6 bombers, and drones, made more than 9,200 flights in the region, amounting to about 29,000 hours in the air, the report shows.
The Chinese navy made more than 70,000 sailings, including aircraft carriers and destroyers, amounting to a total time at sea of more than 1.7 million hours.
Roughly 40 per cent of the Chinese naval journeys were made in the highly contested South China Sea, about 20 per cent were in the East China Sea bordering Japan and South Korea, and nearly 15 per cent were in the sensitive Taiwan Strait, the report shows.
