The Chinese military is ramping up massive military exercises in the South China Sea intended to brush back the United States…

People’s Liberation Army Navy forces are conducting drills in the South China Sea, Yellow Sea, and Bohai Strait near Korea until Thursday. The intense war drills come shortly after another set of military exercises off the coast of Taiwan intended to help China achieve “supremacy” in a potential showdown with the United States and Taiwan…

View Comments (0)

Lawmakers and experts say combative messaging around the exercises from China’s military brass shows an increasingly relentless attitude from Beijing…Brent Sadler, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former naval officer, told the Washington Free Beacon the war drills show the Chinese Communist Party is not just saber-rattling but also preparing for a conflict in the coming years…

Though Vice President Kamala Harris is visiting Asia to engage allies on how to team up against Beijing, Chinese survey ships are already directly intruding into territory belonging to countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia…

Department of Defense spokesman Lt. Col. Martin Meiners told the Free Beacon the Pentagon has no issue with the Chinese naval exercises.

“The Department does not have an issue with military exercises as a normal function of military organizations,” Meiners said. “All countries need to be transparent and communicate their military exercises…to avoid misunderstanding and miscalculation…We urge the PRC to exercise restraint and not undertake military activities that could threaten freedom of navigation or undermine peace and stability in the region.”

China, however, is co-opting similar language…to justify its military actions. Former People’s Liberation Army instructor Song Zhongping said the drill shows that China is prepared to fight at “any moment” to safeguard national sovereignty…

Rep. Rob Wittman (R., Va.), the vice ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, told the Free Beacon that Biden’s budget and Pacific strategy send the wrong message to Beijing.

“We’re well behind where we need to be in keeping up with the Chinese,” Wittman said. “If we’re serious about having a Navy that can compete with the Chinese, we’ve got to get up to where the Trump administration left off…The signals that are being sent by the Biden administration are dangerous ones, and ones that unfortunately could make China pursue the effort to take Taiwan.”

What are your thoughts about China’s exercises? Share your comments and prayers below.

(Excerpted from The Washington Free Beacon. Article by Jack Beyrer. Photo Credit: Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images).