China has the largest navy in the world by hull count with over 370 vessels, including two aircraft carriers in service. Last November, France sent its only aircraft carrier, which is nuclear-powered, for a five-month mission to the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.

The live-fire exercises were a demonstration of China’s growing sea power in Australia and New Zealand’s immediate periphery – and meant to normalize the PLA presence there.

China is flexing its military muscle in the region to show that it will not wait for the Trump administration to decide how hard it wants to counter Beijing.

A breakthrough in long-running talks between Asean and China for a code to manage conflicts in the South China Sea might be on the cards. In a Straits Times exclusive, Yew Lun Tian reports how this fresh momentum is driven by Beijing’s desire to constrain what other claimant states can do in the disputed waterway.

China began live-fire drills this week in the Gulf of Tonkin, just days after Vietnam unveiled a new map defining its territorial claims in the strategic waterway. Newsweek reached out to the Vietnamese and Chinese Foreign Ministries via email for comment outside of office hours.

A simulated picture of the cold seeps ecosystem research facility Photo: Liu Caiyu/GT. China on Friday announced to officially launch a deep-sea research megaproject in Guangzhou,

Prime Minister Chris Luxon is floating the idea of sending a Royal New Zealand Navy vessel to the South China Sea, as he affirms closer ties with Vietnam.

Recent unprecedented live-fire drills by China's navy in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand were "totally in line with international law", a spokesperson for its defence ministry said on Thursday.