TAIPEI, Taiwan — Chinese warships and coast guard vessels surged across the Asia-Pacific this week in what regional officials call Beijing’s largest peacetime naval deployment, spanning the Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and contested South China Sea. The sprawling movements, clustered near key chokepoints around Taiwan, Japan, and the Philippines, appear aimed at testing foreign militaries’ reactions and signaling China’s anger over Taipei’s expanded defense budget and Tokyo’s warnings it could intervene in a Taiwan crisis, Dec. 4, 2025.
Intelligence shared among regional governments and detailed in an exclusive Reuters investigation indicates that more than 100 Chinese warships and coast guard cutters were at sea at one point this week, with about 90 still operating across East Asian waters on Thursday. Some formations are practicing mock attacks on foreign vessels and access-denial drills designed to block outside forces from reinforcing Taiwan in a crisis, even as Beijing insists the activity is part of its regular training cycle.
Regional militaries track Chinese warships across four seas.
Chinese warships are currently spread from the southern Yellow Sea down through the East China Sea, around Taiwan, and deep into the South China Sea, with several task groups pushing east into the broader Pacific, according to officials briefed on the deployments. Taiwan’s security agencies say they are tracking at least four naval formations operating in the western Pacific, while maintaining that the number of Chinese vessels immediately around the island has not spiked as sharply as in previous crises.
One Chinese flotilla in the Philippine Sea, led by a Type 075 landing helicopter dock capable of carrying around 30 helicopters and 1,000 marines, has drawn particular attention in Canberra. Australian officials say the group — which also includes a modern destroyer, a frigate, and a long-range replenishment ship — can operate far from home ports and could, in theory, swing south toward Australia after operating near the Philippines. Details of the task group’s composition and range were first reported by Australian media, including one outlet that highlighted its ability to carry “30 choppers”.
New satellite imagery has since confirmed the presence of that Chinese naval task group east of the Philippines, with analysts noting the mix of amphibious, escort, and refuelling ships as evidence of a force built for long-range operations rather than a simple transit. A private maritime-tracking firm told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the flotilla was about 260 nautical miles east of Luzon when it was detected, part of the same wave of Chinese warships that regional militaries are now shadowing. The images and analysis were featured in an ABC News report on the Chinese flotilla’s “formidable firepower”.
So far, governments in Taipei, Tokyo, and Canberra say the deployments remain in international waters and have not led to serious incidents, but officials acknowledge the risks of miscalculation. One regional security official, speaking anonymously about Chinese warships now operating near multiple U.S. allies, warned that “this goes far beyond China’s national defence needs and creates risks for all sides,” describing the surge as an “unprecedented” test of how neighbors and the United States will respond.
Chinese warships as part of a long-running maritime buildup
Today’s surge of Chinese warships builds on a decade-long expansion of the People’s Liberation Army Navy. A 2024 study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, “Unpacking China’s Naval Buildup”, estimated that China now fields the world’s largest battle fleet by number of major combatants and is on track to widen that lead if current shipbuilding rates continue. Other open-source assessments suggest that roughly 70 percent of Chinese warships were launched after 2010, giving Beijing a comparatively modern fleet even if many ships are smaller than their U.S. counterparts.
The operational pattern is not new. In late 2016, a carrier group of Chinese warships led by the Liaoning sailed south of Taiwan and into the South China Sea in what Taipei then described as a show of force, echoing the current mass deployment but on a smaller scale. That passage, reported at the time as Beijing’s only aircraft carrier cruising past Taiwan’s Pratas Islands to demonstrate improving combat capabilities, underscored how carrier operations were becoming a regular tool of Chinese signaling. Those events were detailed in contemporaneous coverage of the Liaoning’s transit.
Further west, India has been grappling with Chinese warships for years. During the 2017 Doklam border standoff, Indian media reported at least 14 Chinese navy warships — including modern Luyang III destroyers — operating in the Indian Ocean Region, up from an initial three-ship anti-piracy flotilla in 2013–14. That reporting also highlighted regular patrols by Chinese submarines and intelligence-gathering ships, signaling that Beijing’s ability to project naval power into the Indian Ocean was expanding well before this year’s Asia-Pacific surge.
Analysts say the current wave of Chinese warships should therefore be seen as both a continuation and an escalation. Previous large exercises near Taiwan and in the South China Sea relied heavily on aircraft and missiles, but recent data show a growing emphasis on sustained naval presence and so-called “gray zone” operations that keep pressure on rivals without crossing the threshold of open conflict.
For now, regional governments are responding with surveillance flights, public reporting of ship movements, and quiet diplomacy rather than matching Beijing ship-for-ship. Yet the more Chinese warships spread across crowded sea lanes — and the more often they rehearse blockades, mock attacks and close-in maneuvers — the greater the risk that a misstep or collision could turn an “unprecedented” show of force into a crisis none of the region’s capitals can easily contain.
