Chinese Navy conducts live fire drills in South China Sea after US warships enter region

China's first domestically built aircraft carrier, the Shandong, has led a strike group in intensive live-fire drills in the South China Sea. The flotilla also includes a Type 055 stealth guided-missile destroyer and three guided-missile destroyers, as per a report from South China Morning Post. These confrontational drills began last week, according to an announcement on the PLA Navy's WeChat account. As Lunar New Year approaches, defense experts believe that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is on high alert, as military confrontations between the US and China have increased during major festivals in the region.

This comes as the US Navy's 7th fleet reported that the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group had begun routine operations in the region, including maritime strike training, flight operations, and anti-submarine activities. Zhou Chenming, a researcher at the Yuan Wang military science and technology think tank in Beijing, stated that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is being "forced" to be vigilant as in recent years, the US military has deployed more aircraft and warships to China's southeastern coast during the Lunar New Year period. 

Close calls are raising tension

A US Boeing RC-135 spy plane conducted a close-in reconnaissance flight near the eastern Chinese cities of Shanghai and Qingdao on January 7th, according to Zhou Chenming. He added that it is difficult for the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to predict the motivations of such provocative moves by the US military, as the two countries have yet to resolve their differences over the maritime order. Recently, there was a close call between two PLA J-11 fighter jets and a US spy plane over the South China Sea, with both sides blaming each other. 

Zhou stated that the United States is able to conduct freedom of navigation exercises and flights in the area without any limitations because they have not signed the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which regards the waters as part of China's exclusive economic zone. The Chinese People's Liberation Army is concerned that these incursions by US planes and ships could cause instability and conflicts. Zhou also mentioned that while it is common for the PLA to send warships such as destroyers and frigates to monitor American carrier strike groups in the region, it is unusual for China to send a flotilla led by an aircraft carrier.