Global & US Headlines
China Deploys 100-Plus Warships in Biggest East Asian Maritime Drill Yet
Between 4–5 Dec 2025, Beijing surged more than a hundred navy and coast-guard vessels from the Yellow Sea to the Philippine Sea, an unprecedented simultaneous deployment that immediately drew official warnings from both Taipei and Tokyo.
Focusing Facts
- Reuters (4 Dec 2025) counted "over 100" Chinese ships spread across the Yellow, East China and South China Seas as well as the western Pacific—topping the ~90-ship exercise reported in Dec 2024.
- Taiwan’s presidential office on 5 Dec confirmed four distinct Chinese naval formations in the western Pacific while Japan’s Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi publicly acknowledged heightened surveillance the same day.
- Satellite imagery dated 5 Dec showed the Type 075 LHD Hainan, Type 055 destroyer Yan’an, a Jiangkai II frigate and the Luomahu replenishment ship operating together in the Philippine Sea.
Context
China’s mass sortie echoes the 1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis when the PLA fired missiles near Taiwanese ports, and recalls the Soviet Navy’s 1970 ‘Okean’ global exercise—both large-scale demonstrations timed to test political resolve without crossing a formal red line. Strategically, the move fits Beijing’s years-long shift toward continuous, far-sea presence and anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) posturing designed to complicate U.S.–ally reinforcement plans; it also probes the nascent security coordination Japan and Taiwan have signalled after Taipei’s US$40 bn defence bump and Tokyo’s hints of intervention. Whether this flotilla becomes routine or an outlier will inform the region’s arms-race trajectory: a century from now historians may see December 2025 as either an inflection point when China normalised blue-water coercive diplomacy—much like the Imperial Japanese Navy’s 1905 emergence—or a blip that catalysed stronger multilateral counter-balancing, curbing escalation. The episode matters because it tests crisis-management mechanisms in the Indo-Pacific’s most heavily trafficked seaways at a scale not witnessed since the Cold War.
Perspectives
Japanese- and Taiwan-focused regional security media
e.g., Nikkei Asia, Modern Diplomacy — They frame the deployment as China’s biggest maritime show of force yet, warning it directly threatens regional stability and demands heightened vigilance from Taiwan, Japan and their partners. By stressing worst-case scenarios they reinforce domestic arguments for higher defence spending and closer alignment with U.S. security goals, so the scale of the danger may be amplified.
Outlets amplifying Chinese official messaging
e.g., News.az, CNA — They emphasise Beijing’s line that naval movements are seasonal training, lawful and essentially routine, urging other parties not to ‘overreact’ or indulge in ‘groundless hype’. This framing downplays the strategic signal and shields China from criticism, likely reflecting reliance on official statements and limited access to independent verification.
Sensationalist international outlets
e.g., Yahoo, WION — They present the buildup with vivid language and satellite imagery as evidence of Beijing’s ‘brazen’ expansion and an imminent risk of war in the Indo-Pacific. Alarmist headlines and dramatic wording attract clicks and audience attention, so the coverage may exaggerate immediacy of conflict and overlook the routine element cited by officials.