China To Participate in ASEAN Military Drills

China will be taking part in the Association of Southeastern Asian Nations (ASEAN) maritime security anti-terror drill from May 2 to May 12 according to a Chinese military spokesman. The exercise will take place in Brunei and Singapore and will include both land and sea operations. China’s involvement in this exercise comes as tensions are at an all-time high in the South China Sea (SCS).

The Navies from 10 ASEAN countries will be participating along with navies from China, the U.S., Australia, South Korea, Japan, India, New Zealand, and Russia. The exercise will include joint military training, sailing in formation, escorting, searching at sea, helicopter landing on warships, counterterrorism training. The Chinese have indicated they intend to provide a Lanzhou missile destroyer along with a PLA Special Operations Forces unit, and 4 staff officers for the exercise.

The exercise is the first maritime security and counter-terrorism drills being held under the rubric of the ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting.

The exercise will aim to increase military coordination to deal with security threats in the Asia-Pacific region. China has publicly criticized the U.S.’s SCS policy, which is focused on insuring “freedom of navigation.” China views the U.S. effort to insure traditional International norms of maritime freedom as destabilizing to regional stability and a pretext for U.S. intervention. China claims sovereignty over much of the SCS and has undertaken a strategy of developing fortified islands with airstrips and harbors for the Chinese military assets.

In late 2013, China began developing artificial islands in the SCS and began confronting foreign vessels. On December 5, 2013, A Chinese war ship aggressively confronted the USS Cowpens and the Cowpens had to change course to avoid a collision.

China has pushed the boundaries be developing a reef on the Kalayaan Islands which are under the Philippines sovereignty, and also militarized islands with Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAMS), air strips, ports, and radar stations on Woody Island. China claims Woody Island was previously militarized and no body seemed to notice.  Its not just the islands and reefs that China is looking at in the South China Sea, but also the vast resources including gas and oil.  The Spratly Islands are believed to have enough natural resources for 800 million to 5.4 billion barrels of oil.

Tensions between China and the U.S. have been particularly high dating back to November 2015 when a U.S. Navy destroyer sailed within 12 miles of Triton Island near the Paracel Islands. Tension also remain high between Vietnam and China, following a May 2014 incident in which Vietnam sailors claim a Chinese patrol boat intentionally rammed them and then sprayed them with a water cannon.

Taiwan has also been in a heated dispute with China over the tiny Taiping Island that Taiwan claims to have ruled for 60 years, and is no sustainable for any major development. The Philippines feeling the pressure China invited the U.S. but also Australia to partake in a military exercise on islands within the South China Sea.

Over the past year, China has become more active in working with other nations in military drills including Malaysia,  Cambodia, Russia, and Pakistan; and further inserting its military presence in Afghanistan and Djibouti as a means to deter U.S. influence and further their own national interest within these countries.

While the need for counter terrorism cooperation is obvious, the decision to permit China to participate in naval related exercises probably has more to do with seeking to reduce tensions during a period of increasingly adversarial activity in the region. It’s hard not to view the decision to include the Chinese military as a something of a reward for it’s increasingly provocative behavior.