The Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong has made two rare transits north of the Philippines within the span of a week, in what analysts called a “show of force” as US and Philippine forces held joint drills in the area.
They said the Shandong’s passage through the Luzon Strait – a key naval choke point located between Taiwan and the Philippines – underscored Beijing’s resolve to break through the first island chain in the face of US containment efforts, notably through the deployment of anti-ship missiles during the joint exercise.
The Shandong, accompanied by six destroyers and frigates, as well as two support vessels, was first detected by the Philippine Navy last Tuesday roughly 185km (115 miles) northwest of Burgos on the northwestern tip of Luzon, the Philippines’ biggest island.
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The vessels were detected just a day after Manila and Washington began their annual Balikatan exercise, a three-week joint drill featuring “full-scale battle scenarios”.
The exercises were conducted within Philippine waters, stretching from around Subic Bay to northern Luzon – close to where the Shandong was spotted.
On Wednesday, the Japanese defence ministry reported spotting the Shandong sailing in the Philippine Sea, about 789km south of Japan’s Miyako Island. Aircraft on board the carrier conducted roughly 130 take-off and landing drills between Wednesday and Friday, according to the ministry.
Reversing course from east to west, the Shandong then sailed back through the Luzon Strait, appearing again on Manila’s radar on Friday and last observed about 228km off Burgos again on Saturday.
Saturday marked the eighth anniversary of the launch of the Shandong, China’s first domestically built aircraft carrier and its second carrier after the Liaoning. The Fujian, a more advanced carrier launched in 2022, features electromagnetic catapult technology.
The broad Luzon Strait, which includes the Bashi Channel, is a critical waterway for the Chinese navy to break through the first island chain into the open Pacific, where the Shandong regularly transits.
The carrier’s recent operations underlined China’s ability to conduct “rapid and frequent” missions as it continued to refine its blue-water naval capabilities, analysts said.
Collin Koh, a senior fellow at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, noted that it was “not too often” that the Shandong retraced the same route, suggesting that its mission was about showing force in response to the Balikatan exercise.
“The deployment was certainly a show of force in light of Balikatan when they are conducting drills related to anti-ship techniques, and this was meant to signal that whatever the Filipinos and Americans are doing to conduct sea denial in these passageways, the [Chinese] navy will still force its way through in a conflict,” Koh said.
Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, similarly said the Shandong’s manoeuvres were linked to Balikatan and were aimed at both monitoring the exercises and showcasing Chinese naval capabilities.
“The [Chinese navy] would want to monitor the exercises, but would also seek to show the flag, so operating close to the exercises, and showing complex manoeuvres at sea is highly likely to be a focus of the [Chinese navy] operations,” he said.
“By operating close to the Philippines, Beijing would be sending a message to Manila through showing naval power in an assertive manner.”
As part of the Balikatan exercise, which runs until May 9, the US deployed the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (Nmesis) in the Philippines for the first time.
Positioned on Batan Island in the Luzon Strait, the Nmesis – a land-based anti-ship missile system mounted on a remotely controlled vehicle equipped with two Naval Strike Missile launchers – is designed to strike enemy vessels at distances of more than 185km.
According to Timothy Heath, senior international defence researcher at US-based think tank Rand Corporation, the deployment of the Nmesis sends a powerful message to China that the Philippines will not be so easily intimidated and that the US remains fully involved in the region.
Before a two-day People’s Liberation Army (PLA) drill near Taiwan earlier this month, the Shandong made another appearance near the Philippines as it transited through narrower waterways within the Philippine archipelago to reach the eastern waters off Taiwan.
Hu Bo, director of the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative, a Beijing-based think tank, said the Shandong’s mission was primarily about improving its far-sea operational capabilities rather than monitoring Balikatan, as a carrier was not required to conduct such a mission.
Hu noted that recent movements showed “more frequent” deployments of the Shandong for far-sea operations.
Koh said that the frequent deployments served multiple purposes.
“Of course, we tend to link it to the ongoing tensions between the Philippines and China over South China Sea disputes. But in general terms, other than that, it is also intended to highlight that the PLA Navy is able to move freely beyond the first island chain, in whichever direction and through whichever specific area,” he said.
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