Editor’s Note: This piece by Venus Upadhayaya features extensive quotes from CSP Senior Fellow Grant Newsham.
Russia and China completed joint naval drills in the East China Sea from Dec. 21-27, 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin told Chinese leader Xi Jinping during their call on Dec. 30 that Moscow seeks to strengthen military ties with Beijing.
These developments followed the joint air exercise that included nuclear-capable bombers flying over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea, according to the Russian defense ministry’s statement on Nov. 30.
“Chinese planes landed at Russian air bases and vice versa. That was a good indication of the level of integration they’ve worked out … and potential future cooperation. Dismiss it at one’s peril,” said Grant Newsham, a retired U.S. Marine officer and a senior research fellow at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies.
The joint naval exercise, called the “Maritime Interaction-2022,” included Russia’s Pacific Fleet and was carried out in waters off Zhoushan and Taizhou in China’s Zhejiang Province, the Chinese regime’s state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. The drills also involved submarine capture, which, according to Newsham, means “anti-submarine warfare [ASW],” such as detecting, locating, and destroying enemy submarines.
Although there’s no official agreement between the two countries, this collaboration between the Russian and Chinese forces strategically targets the United States and Japan, Newsham told The Epoch Times in an email.
“In this case, American and Japanese subs. But it works with any adversary’s subs, too. The American and Japanese submarine forces are a huge problem for China and Russia (and every other enemy), and it’s one area where we still have a big advantage. Thus, the Chinese and the Russians want to improve their ASW capabilities in order to reduce (or eliminate) this U.S./Japanese advantage,” Newsham wrote.
The Russian defensive ministry published a video showing a group of Russian and Chinese warships in the East China Sea. The Russian sailors spoke in Mandarin to the Chinese, and Russian ships fired missiles.
Newsham said that anti-submarine warfare is a perishable skill and the crewmen need constant training. The two countries train together in many regions of the world, particularly around their respective countries, and this has been the trend for a decade.
“Russia’s main focus is directed westwards towards Europe. But it also wants to maintain its position in the East (northeast Asia). China’s main focus is in East Asia as it wants to dominate and/or control the Asia-Pacific region and to eject the Americans,” said Newsham.
“At the same time, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] has interests in Europe, but they are, for now, more economical. So the mutual support Russia and China can provide each other is mutually beneficial.”
According to the expert, this mutual support involves political and propaganda tools, but following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Beijing’s financial support to Moscow has become essential.
“Of course, Beijing drives a hard bargain with Putin. And when the time comes, Russia will assist when/if China attacks Taiwan. All Russia has to do is to move some naval and air forces around, and that will be a useful distraction—preventing the Americans and Japanese from focusing on supporting Taiwan as much as they would like,” he stated.
Russian oil and energy and food, in particular, will also be essential to Chinese efforts to resist the sanctions that would follow in the event the regime attacked Taiwan, according to Newsham.
