A Chinese three-ship naval task group has returned to the contested South China Sea following the completion of a month-long, unprecedented circumnavigation of Australia.
Newsweek has reached out to the Chinese Defense Ministry for further comment by email.
Why It Matters
The Chinese navy flotilla, consisting of a destroyer, a frigate and a replenishment ship, sailed round Australia, a United States ally in the South Pacific Ocean, from mid-February to early March, transiting from the eastern seaboard to the western seaboard.
The Chinese naval deployment commenced in early February near the Philippines, which has territorial disputes in the South China Sea with China. Beijing’s territorial claims in the region also overlap with those of Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, Brunei and Indonesia.
What To Know
A pair of Chinese naval vessels, the frigate CNS Hengyang and the replenishment ship CNS Weishanhu, docked at the Tien Sa Port near the city of Da Nang, which lies on the coast of central Vietnam, from Monday to Wednesday, the Vietnamese military reported.
Both ships are part of the naval task group that sailed around Australia with the destroyer CNS Zunyi. It was not clear whether the Zunyi had returned to China or remained in the South China Sea.
Australian Defense Department
The visit of the Chinese navy to Vietnam came after Hanoi unveiled a map defining its territorial claims in the South China Sea in late February and Beijing organized live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin, located off the coasts of North Vietnam and South China.
Da Nang has often hosted foreign warships, including those of the U.S. Navy. In March 2018, USS Carl Vinson became the first U.S. aircraft carrier to dock in the Southeast Asian nation since the Vietnam War ended in 1975, showcasing America’s naval presence in the region.
The Chinese military‘s media wing on Tuesday released undated footage on X, formerly Twitter, which showed the naval task group recently holding live-fire training exercises and replenishment at sea operations in “certain waters” of the Pacific Ocean.
The Chinese flotilla held a war game off the east coast of Australia in late February, which prompted airlines to divert flights. The Chinese ambassador to Australia later claimed that it was normal for China to send its warships to the area to hold activities as a “major power.”
What People Are Saying
The Vietnamese People’s Army Newspaper reported on Tuesday: “This [Chinese navy] visit aims to implement the common perceptions reached by the leaders of the two Central Military Commissions and the Ministries of National Defense on the enhancement of military vessel visits, mutual understanding and trust between the two navies, contributing to strengthening Vietnam-China defense cooperation.”
Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said in an interview on March 12: “So for the whole time that the [Chinese] Task Group was within the vicinity of Australia, there were Australian warships and indeed P8s, which are an Air Force plane, surveilling the ships so that we knew exactly what they were doing.”
What Happens Next
Alex Luck, an Australia-based naval analyst, previously told Newsweek that the Chinese military is likely to send another naval task group to the South Pacific Ocean in the future.
