China Deploys More Than 100 Vessels Across Western Pacific

More than 100 Chinese naval and coast guard vessels are deployed across the western Pacific in a buildup that may simulate isolating Taiwan from outside support, researcher Jackson Karas assessed.

The forces include naval groups operating between Taiwan and Guam and a closer grouping of naval and coast guard ships around Taiwan. The deployment’s geographic reach exceeds that of China’s latest exercise around the island, Justice Mission 2025.

“The scale of these deployments suggests that the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is conducting a major exercise that simulates isolating Taiwan,” Karas, a researcher at the Institute for the Study of War, wrote. He described coordination among surface forces from China’s Eastern, Northern and Southern Theater Commands as rare.

Karas also noted that China had not announced a major exercise at the time of his writing. China had not announced a major military exercise at the time of writing, despite having announced and named its previous four major military exercises targeting Taiwan.