Soldiers from The Singapore Army and PLA practising Close Quarter Combat (CQB) drills during the sharing session. (FB of Ministry of Defence, Singapore (MINDEF))
Aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea has overtaken the Israel-Hamas conflict to become the top concern for ASEAN-10 governments this year
By Jennifer Ng
Commentary
Singapore’s Ministry of Defence announced joint military exercises with China’s armed forces in Singapore recently, amid increasing Chinese aggression towards Asian nations in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait.
The joint exercises in Singapore were the seventh edition of the bilateral Exercise Cooperation between the Singapore Army and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China, conducted from December 10 to 17.
Singapore’s Defence Ministry said on Facebook that the exercise focused on urban Counter-Terrorism (CT) operations, involving 90 personnel from the SAF's 3rd Singapore Division and 1st Commando Battalion, alongside 90 personnel from the PLA Southern Theatre Command Army’s 74th Army Group.
"The exercise will feature a battalion-level Field Training Exercise, conducted at SAFTI City for the first time. SAFTI City is Singapore’s first high-rise urban training facility, and is equipped with smart instrumentation to provide real-time feedback to support training for a wider range of operations, including CT."
SAFTI City, officially opened on March 19, is a state-of-the-art urban training facility designed to hone Singapore soldiers’ skills and tactics for a range of missions, including homeland security, counter-terrorism and disaster relief operations.
"Participants from both armies will also engage in tactical drills, small arms live firing, use of drones for basic reconnaissance and patrol, and cohesion activities. These interactions aim to strengthen professional exchanges and enhance people-to-people ties," the Facebook post added.
The post also quoted Chief-of-Staff of the 3rd Singapore Division, Colonel Yow Thiam Poh: “Exercise Cooperation demonstrates the warm and friendly defence ties between Singapore and China. It builds mutual trust between the People’s Liberation Army and the Singapore Army and allows our people from both sides to strengthen relationships and build bonds.”
Rich in natural resources, Scarborough Shoal is a vital fishing ground for local Filipino villagers. China’s aggression threatens the livelihood of the fishermen.
In September, China announced the construction of the Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve in Scarborough Shoal, prompting strong protests from the Philippines and the US.
Threat of Taiwan’s Invasion
The PLA has been staging regular exercises in the waters and airspace around Taiwan, which the Taipei government regards as a way of putting pressure on the island.
The CCP claims Taiwan as its own territory, although the Taiwanese people have elected their own government since the country first held elections in 1996.
The CCP has not ruled out using force to seize control of the island.
According to US intelligence, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has told the PLA to be ready for Taiwan’s invasion by 2027.
The Guardian reported that Chinese military incursions into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone (ADIZ) have steadily increased in recent years, rising to more than 3,000 in 2024 from over 1,700 in 2022.
The Guardian
Coercive Actions Against Japan
China has imposed punitive measures against Japan following Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s November 8 parliamentary remarks that Japan could take military action to protect its interests in the Taiwan Strait if China attacked Taiwan.
Itsunori Onodera, chairman of Japan’s Security Research Commission, said the Chinese military has “raised the alert level to a far more dangerous stage", a development that could be seen as a "provocation”, after Chinese military J-15 jets locked radar twice on Japanese ASDF F-15 aircraft off Okinawa, Japan’s southernmost islands, on December 6.
China has also cancelled music events by Japanese pop stars Ayumi Hamasaki and Maki Tosuki.
The CCP has reinstated a ban on Japanese seafood imports after briefly lifting restrictions earlier in November.
It also warned Chinese citizens against travelling to Japan, sending stocks of Japanese department stores and tourism-related companies tumbling.
In addition, Beijing dispatched coast guard ships near Japan-administered Islands on November 15.
The CCP is known for using coercive actions to force countries to submit to its demands.
In 2023, Beijing imposed a blanket ban on all Japanese seafood imports after Japan released radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific, despite the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) declaring it safe.
In 2010, China halted rare earth exports to Japan for about seven weeks after Japanese authorities detained a Chinese fishing captain whose vessel collided with coast guard ships near the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands.
On October 9, Beijing imposed export controls on five rare earths, bringing the total number of controlled rare earths to 12, a move seen as leverage in trade negotiations with the US.
Naoki Hyakuta, head of Japan’s minor opposition Conservative Party, denounced Beijing's actions as “bullying” and “harassment”.
Hei Seki, a Chinese-born legislator with the ruling Japan Innovation Party, said: “Having studied the CCP regimes for many years, I understand their habits well. They always become arrogant and adopt an intimidating attitude toward those who yield or appear weak.”
Confrontations in Japan-Administered Senkaku Islands
Over the years, Chinese coast guard vessels have repeatedly entered waters around the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands, prompting numerous confrontations with Japanese coast guard ships.
The latest confrontation occurred on December 2, when two Chinese coast guard vessels approached a Japanese fishing boat near the Senkaku islands and Japan Coast Guard (JCG) vessels demanded that it leave the area.
A Chinese Coast Guard spokesperson responded that the Japanese fishing boat had violated Chinese waters and that the coast guard vessels had taken necessary control measures, issuing warnings to drive it away.
The CCP refers to the Senkaku Islands as the Diaoyu Islands and claims them as Chinese territory.
The discovery of potential undersea oil reserves in the Senkaku Islands in 1968, while the islands were under US administration, sparked CCP interest in the disputed territory. Japan had maintained ownership of the islands from 1895 until its defeat at the end of World War II. Under the Treaty of San Francisco, the US assumed administrative rights over the islands, governing them until 1972, when they were returned to Japanese control under the Okinawa Reversion Agreement.
Chinese vessels have entered Japanese territorial waters 22 times in 2025, prompting Japan to dispatch its own patrol ships, a coast guard spokesman said, according to an October report by Stars and Stripes.
In 2024, The Japan Times reported the following from JCG: “China Coast Guard vessels have been spotted near the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands for a record 353 days as Beijing continues to ramp up its activities.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan reported: “China Coast Guard ships persistently continue unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion in the waters around the Senkaku Islands. This includes approaching Japanese fishing vessels inside Japanese territorial waters and intrusions by ships mounted with artillery.”
“It is a violation of international law for the China Coast Guard ships to make their own assertions in Japanese territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands, and such acts will absolutely not be tolerated.”
China’s Expands Militarisation in Yellow Sea Near South Korea
A US think tank report suggests that Beijing’s installation of facilities in the Yellow Sea off South Korea resembles the “creeping sovereignty” grey-zone tactics used in the Chinese militarisation of the South and East China Seas.
The report released by CSIS on December 9 revealed that 16 structures installed by Beijing in the Yellow Sea (West Sea) without prior consultation with South Korea violated the 2001 Korea-China Fisheries Agreement signed between South Korea and China. The agreement aims to establish a jointly managed maritime area, called the Provisional Measures Zone (PMZ), in the Yellow Sea.
CSIS
“Since 2018, China has unilaterally deployed 13 buoys in and around the PMZ in the Yellow Sea,” CSIS revealed.
“China has also constructed two aquaculture cages ostensibly to breed fish, and an integrated management platform in the PMZ without prior consultation with South Korea.”
It stated that “China’s placement of the Shen Lan 1, Shen Lan 2 and the Atlantic Amsterdam in the PMZ is a violation of the Korea-China Fisheries Agreement, which prohibits building permanent installations within the PMZ”.
The report said China has repeatedly rejected South Korea’s requests to remove the structures and also declared a “no-sail” zone within the PMZ.
South Korea has been monitoring the developments, but its vessels have been intercepted 27 out of 135 times since 2020, including “multiple instances of standoffs between the South Korean research vessel Onnuri and the Chinese coast guard this year”.
CSIS said the structures are “civilian installations for potential dual use purposes”.
Shen Ming-shi, a researcher at the Institute for National Defence and Security Research in Taiwan, told The Epoch Times that these buoys have multiple functions, including measuring water temperature and salinity. More importantly, "devices can be placed to listen to underwater sounds and detect the dynamics of submarines on the seabed, especially nuclear-powered submarines”.
Lin Chih-Hao, an assistant researcher at the Institute for National Defence and Security Research in Taiwan, explained the strategic intent of such installations by CCP.
The Yellow Sea is located at the mouth of the Bohai Sea in Shandong Province. "If a carrier strike group from a naval base in southern Shandong Province or a base in the Bohai Sea wants to sail south, maintaining influence or control in the Yellow Sea will ensure that naval forces can pass through the Yellow Sea smoothly,” Lin told the Epoch Times.
“In emergency situations or when necessary, it can monitor the situation at sea in the first instance and ensure that the South Korean Navy or Coast Guard will not take any adverse actions against the Chinese Navy in the Yellow Sea.”
Lin analysed that the CCP's “grey-zone tactics” often use buoys to extend sovereignty or legitimise the actions of local governments in relevant areas. These actions may gradually erode the sovereignty or law enforcement legitimacy of other countries in the region.
In summarising the far-reaching impact of the CCP's Yellow Sea strategy, Lin pointed out: "If the CCP expands its influence in the Yellow Sea, it means that North Korea will have a great opportunity to expand its smuggling routes and even the scope of its maritime activities through the CCP's expansion of its maritime territory."
He warned that this would not only affect operations and economic activity in the western waters of South Korea, but would also “compress the interests of other countries at sea” and “make Northeast Asia more tense”.
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