China puts naval might on display near Taiwan after U.S.-Canada joint mission

China’s naval forces have initiated their largest-ever military exercises featuring the aircraft carrier Shandong and around two dozen other Chinese warships in the western Pacific, as Beijing aims to assert its military presence in the region to push back against the U.S. and its allies, according to foreign defense officials and analysts.

The unusually large naval formation is led by the Shandong, the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) second aircraft carrier commissioned in 2019. The Shandong participated in military drills around Taiwan in April, and sailed through the Taiwan Strait in June. Today the Shandong is on course to rendezvous with more than 20 other Chinese warships in waters between Taiwan, the Philippines and the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam.

In the 24 hours leading up to early Tuesday morning, Taiwan’s defense ministry counted 22 Chinese military aircraft, including J-16 fighters, in the waters around the island, with 13 of the detected aircraft crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait or entering Taiwan’s southwest air defense identification zone (ADIZ).

Japan’s military said that it noticed six Chinese destroyers and two Chinese frigates on Monday morning close to Japan, and tracked them as they sailed southeast between the Japanese islands of Okinawa and Miyako, in a direction indicating that they would meet up with the Shandong.

Beijing’s move follows a flurry of U.S.-led military exercises in the region that saw participation from more than two dozen nations. In late August, the U.S., Australia, and Japan carried out a joint exercise in the South China Sea off the western Philippines.

In its biggest display of strength near eastern China in 10 years, the U.S. sent an amphibious ready group to join a sail with South Korean and Canadian naval ships in the Yellow sea in the first week of September. The operation was to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the Battle of Incheon during the Korean war and the 70th anniversary of the U.S.-South Korea alliance.

While China has made no announcement about the recent dispatch of the Shandong, it has condemned a transit of the Taiwan Strait by a U.S. destroyer and Canadian frigate on September 9, accusing the ships of carrying out “public hyping” in the region. The U.S.-Canada joint mission was announced by the U.S. Navy as the G20 summit in New Delhi was drawing to a close. The event was skipped by Chinese President Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 but attended by both U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.