1.7 MILLION HOURS AT SEA
In recent years, roiling tensions have sparked a significant increase in the level of military exercises in Asia, but a study has found that China’s drills still lag in terms of complexity and size.
Sending ship groups into the waters of the Western Pacific was not only about stretching muscles around Taiwan, according to China’s state-backed International Times newspaper, and China’s military needed to retrain itself to operate far out at sea.
” China’s ship fight team is facing not only the Taiwan authorities, but also the intervention of external forces”, defense analyst Song Zhongping told the newspaper.
Four experts expressed concern that the reports ‘ strategy would be applicable and could provide valuable information, but they also reaffirmed that it must have involved some speculation.
They also said clear evaluations on military exercise saving were hard, no data was available, for example, on how much the United States spent on such activities in 2023. However, the US Department of Defense has suggested that the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, which was established to combat China’s defense growth, will cost US$ 9.9 billion in the coming year.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the truth of the Chinese measure.
China has stepped up military attacks and , war game near Taiwan.
In 2023, Foreign aircraft, including J-10 fighter jets, H-6 planes, and drones, made more than 9, 200 planes in the region, equivalent to about 29, 000 time in the air, the document shows.
The Chinese military made more than 70, 000 sailings, including aircraft operators and ships, equivalent to a full time at sea of more than 1.7 million time.
Nearly 40 % of Chinese naval voyages took place in the very content South China Sea, about 20 % of them were in the East China Sea, which borders Japan and South Korea, and nearly 15 % of them took place in the delicate Taiwan Strait, according to the report.