More than 100 Chinese naval ships and dozens of aircraft fired live ammunition over the contested South China Sea this week in military manoeuvres that are likely to raise the political temperature in the region.
The demonstration of firepower, broadcast on national television, appeared calculated to reassert Beijing’s claim to hegemony in the area, where a number of neighbouring countries have also staked claims.
It also raised criticism from observers in the region who equated it with sabre-rattling. “An exercise on this scale in the South China Sea seems a needlessly excessive show of force,” said Rory Medcalf, head of the National Security College at the Australian National University.
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