In East Asia, China is watching the same geopolitical/military strategy being employed by America against Russia, as described by RAND in a 2019 report, now playing out in the South China Sea. The Beijing-based think-tank South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI) released a report yesterday saying that the United States held more than 100 large-scale military exercises near China in 2021, practicing and validating several new war concepts targeting the country, reported Global Times. Analysts told GT a major reason for the extensive drills with new tactics is that America aims to contain China but is faced with the rapid development of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA); the U.S. military is worried that its traditional instruments of war are becoming obsolete facing the PLA.
Out of the 95 exercises for which there is publicly available information, 81 of them involved not only countries that border the South China Sea but those from outside the region including Japan, the U.K., Australia, India, France and Canada, the SCSPI report said. In 2021, the U.S. military successively sent strategic platforms including four carrier strike groups, two amphibious ready groups, 11 nuclear-powered attack submarines, and carried out 22 bombers sorties. This was in addition to conducting at least 1,200 aerial close-in reconnaissance sorties with large spy aircraft and 419 ship days of maritime survey and surveillance with spy ships to the South China Sea, with an obvious intent to deter China.
