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US and Chinese naval power (Data: International Institute for Strategic Studies)

The Chinese and Russian navies are launching full-scale naval drills on July 25 as part of their first-ever joint exercises in the Baltic Sea. The drills, which included previous land-based exercises, suggest an intensifying naval power competition with the US, which held a commissioning on July 23 for the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier.

The commanding officers of the Chinese and Russian navies held land-based exercises on July 23 at Baltiysk Naval Base in the Russian city of Kaliningrad, the Chinese newspaper People’s Liberation Army Daily reported on July 24. The exercises lasted for several hours, during which the Russian military command delivered an explanation on the installation status of a combined command and the two sides formed teams to hold discussions according to their combat organization, the newspaper said.

“One of the goals of the exercises is to increase the response proficiency of commanders at various levels in terms of the exercise sequence and components, while another is to strengthen cooperation by the Chinese and Russian commanders,” said Wang Xiaoyong, deputy commander of a Chinese destroyer detachment.

The Maritime Cooperation-2017 drills by South Korea and the US kicked off on July 22, one day after Chinese warships arrived at Baltiysk, and continue until July 28. Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy Aleksandr Fedotenkov said the joint drills “have increased in expertise and comprehensiveness since 2012.” China and Russia plan to hold joint exercises in the East Sea and Sea of Okhotsk in mid-September.

The Chinese and Russian navies have held joint exercises every year since their first in the Yellow (West) Sea in 2012. The latest ones are the first to be held in the Baltic, as well as the Chinese navy’s first-ever exercises in Europe.

“The exercises by the Chinese and Russian navies have been observed closely by Western countries since they began. This year, the Chinese fleet’s arrival in the Baltic was tracked by vessels from Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Denmark,” China’s state-run China Daily reported.

The development is not a welcome one for the Western countries facing Russia across the Baltic Sea. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has been openly demanding transparency from China and Russia. Beijing’s position is that it requires operational capabilities in various maritime regions around the world because of the scale of its maritime trade.

China deployed its latest battleships for the exercises, including the Type 052D missile-destroyer Changsha, the Type 054A missile frigate Yuncheng, and the Type 903A replenishment ship Luomahu, which are affiliated with the South Sea Fleet conducting operations in the South China Sea. The ships traveled around 16,000 miles, departing from Sanya on June 18 and sailing by way of the Gulf of Aden, Suez Canal, Mediterranean Sea, and English Channel. Live firing training exercises were also conducted in the Mediterranean. Russia deployed around ten vessels, including its latest corvette, along with fighter aircraft, helicopters, and fighter-bombers.

Beijing and Moscow have maintained that the drills “do not target any specific third country,” but some observers have suggested the China is flexing the muscles of its rapidly growing naval strength.

“By sending its latest missile destroyer, China showed its friendship with Russia while at the same time sending a powerful message to other countries that might provoke China,” People’s Liberation Army Naval Research Institute researcher Li Jie told the Global Times.

After commissioning its first aircraft carrier with the Liaoning, China launched its first aircraft carrier based on its own technology in April, with four additional ones currently under construction. Once the Chinese navy has all six aircraft carriers, it will be second only to the US (11) in number. The US think tank Center for a New American Security (CNAS) predicted that the Chinese navy’s warships would outnumber the US’s by 2030 by a margin of 500 to 350.

Despite the efforts it is putting into building its naval strength, China is still far short of equaling the US. But it could achieve the dream of President Xi Jinping and other members of the leadership in Beijing to build a powerful ocean-going navy as the steady quantitative improvements join the qualitative improvements made through joint drills. In other words, it may only be a matter of time before China is sending its aircraft carriers around the world like the US to show its force. Russia’s Sputnik News predicted last month that China could eventually deploy an ocean-going fleet and nuclear submarines in the Atlantic Ocean.

By Kim Oi-hyun, Beijing correspondent

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