China's naval moves beyond first island chain show reach: analysts

ANALYSIS/China's naval moves beyond first island chain show reach: analysts

Taipei, Oct. 29 (CNA) Recent Chinese naval activity beyond the first island chain reflects the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) ability to conduct coordinated operations across the Western Pacific and signals Beijing's strategic ambitions, analysts said Thursday.

The assessment follows reports of Chinese naval movements stretching from southern Japan to Taiwan and the Philippines, reported separately by Taiwan's National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) and by Japan's Joint Staff Office.

Taiwan, Japan monitoring

In an X post published Wednesday, Wu said the PLA was sending groups of vessels, including the Liaoning carrier strike group, to exercise east of the first island chain.

"We're staying vigilant about their activities. The simultaneous threat to Taiwan, Japan & the Philippines is obvious," Wu said.

The post included a map showing the locations of 34 Chinese warships, including the Liaoning aircraft carrier strike group east of the Philippines, and 19 Chinese Coast Guard and other official vessels. The post did not cite a source for the map.

The map also identified the vessels as belonging to naval formations operating in distant waters from China's northern, eastern and southern theater commands.

Also on Wednesday, Japan's Joint Staff Office said the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force had spotted four Chinese vessels sailing east in waters about 200 kilometers west of Kuchinoerabu-jima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture at around 10 a.m. Tuesday.

The four vessels later sailed east through the Osumi Strait toward the Pacific, the Joint Staff Office said in a news release.

They were a Renhai-class guided-missile destroyer, Type 055 (hull No. 109); a Luyang III-class guided-missile destroyer, Type 052D (hull No. 133); a Jiangkai II-class frigate, Type 054A (hull No. 530); and a China Coast Guard vessel (hull No. 2307).

China offers limited details

China has provided limited information about the naval activity.

On Oct. 14, China's Defense Ministry said the Liaoning carrier group had sailed to the Western Pacific for training as part of the navy's annual training plan.

The training was intended to test and improve the troops' combat readiness and ability to carry out their missions, and was not directed at any specific country or target, it said.

The same day, the PLA Navy's WeChat account, "People's Navy," released footage of four Type 071 amphibious transport docks from the Southern Theater Command conducting training involving multiple combat-related exercises in an unspecified area.

Analysts' views

Speaking to CNA on Thursday, Lin Ying-yu (林穎佑), an associate professor at Tamkang University's Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies, said the PLA had integrated naval forces from its northern, eastern and southern theater commands.

He said the PLA's naval operations should be viewed not as separate activities by individual theater commands, but as part of a broader "first island chain theater," with interconnected vessel movements reflecting an overall operational plan for the first island chain.

Citing information from Japan's Joint Staff Office, Lin said the Liaoning carrier strike group passed through the Miyako Strait and sailed east of Taiwan toward the Philippine Sea.

The movement indicated that China's focus remained on the South China Sea, where Beijing was using a form of "gunboat diplomacy" to pressure Manila, Lin said.

Lin also said the attention on China's aircraft carrier should not overshadow other advanced warships, particularly the Type 055 guided-missile destroyer seen in the operation, which he described as a measure of the Chinese navy's combat strength.

Shu Hsiao-huang (舒孝煌), an associate research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said PLA Navy activity had three political implications.

Shu said the activity was a response to the U.S.-Japan Keen Sword 27 exercise, held Oct. 19-29 on Japan's southwestern islands, and to a Wednesday meeting in Cebu between U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi. The two officials agreed to strengthen defense cooperation along the "first island chain" linking Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines, he said.

Shu added that the naval activity was also a response to a U.S. Army guide calling for regional forces to mobilize on the first day of an Indo-Pacific conflict and identifying China as a "pacing threat."

On the military front, Shu said the Liaoning aircraft carrier is deployed at sea annually, but the scale of China's naval forces involved this time was significant.

He said China was using routine exercises to build its ability to operate beyond the first island chain and gradually develop carrier strike group capabilities modeled on the U.S. Navy.

(By Wu Su-wei and Shih Hsiu-chuan)

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