China has developed its navy and now has the largest number of warships in the world.
During the summer, China has participated in military exercises in Europe.
Since the beginning of the week, a destroyer of the Chinese navy has participated in a military exercise in the Gulf of Finland. In July, China participated in an exercise near Poland’s border with Belarus, just in time for the NATO summit.
According to experts, China’s participation in, for example, Russian military exercises is primarily a wink for NATO.
– We are signaling that we are dissatisfied with the stricter tone of the NATO summit on China’s support for Russia, says the acting director of the foreign policy institute who visited in the morning Mikael Mattlin.
Docent of world politics Juha Vuori The University of Turku reminds us that the formal participation was part of the Russian Navy’s celebration parade.
China learns from Russia
China has purposefully developed its naval forces. The US research institute CSIS estimated in Junethat China has the world’s most powerful navy in terms of the number of warships.
China currently has a total of 234 battleships, while the United States has 219.
– Just looking at the number and size of the ships is not decisive, but yes, they are the 11 aircraft carriers that the United States makes a superpower. In China, there are much fewer of them, there is no experience at all and the technology is worse, states Vuori.
Since China has not been at war in ages, it is now taking lessons from Russia in joint military exercises.
– It must be remembered that China has not waged an active war for decades. Of course, Russia has much more experience in actual warfare, which China does not. The Chinese navy, land force and air force must be constantly learning something from that, says Mattlin.