Asia sees more military drills, but China lags US in scale and complexity: study

The United States and China have significantly increased the volume of military exercises across Asia amid roiling regional tensions in recent years, though Beijing’s drills still lag in scale and complexity, a new study has found.

In a survey of military exercises in Asia between 2003 and 2022, the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies said drills are expanding at an increasing rate, driven in part by US and Chinese efforts to test capabilities and boost strategic diplomacy.

The IISS study “Scripted Order”, released on Friday, charted some 1,113 US exercises involving Asian countries, compared with 130 run by China.

Noting that the US military may eventually lose its edge over China in the region, the study says China is challenged by a lack of combat experience and that its exercises “remain underdeveloped and over scripted for a regional contingency”.

“The US will seek to maintain its lead via plethora of military exercises with almost all regional countries,” the study notes. “China will try to narrow the gap by deepening its exercise ties with a small number of regional partners.”

More broadly, military deployments across the region have been rising for several years amid tensions over Taiwan and territorial disputes in the vital trade waterways of the East and South China Seas.

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. While many nations, including the US, do not officially acknowledge Taiwan as an independent state, they oppose any use of force to alter the existing status quo.

Diplomats and analysts say they are watching the trend closely, with some noting that drills serve many purposes: promoting freedom of navigation in disputed waters, signalling deterrence and