China, Indonesia Hold Naval Drills East of Taiwan
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- Chinese state media released footage of a joint naval drill with Indonesia conducted in waters east of Taiwan, published August 13, 2026.
- Taipei raised concern that Beijing is seeking to normalise its military presence around the island and assert control over vital shipping lanes.
Why it matters: Beijing staged the exercise alongside Indonesia — a key Southeast Asian partner — in waters east of Taiwan, and Taipei reads the drills as a deliberate push to entrench China's military footprint near shipping lanes critical to regional trade, cloaking the show of force as routine multilateral cooperation.
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