Chinese troops to hold rare joint military exercise in Laos

China and landlocked Laos will stage a rare joint military drill this month to challenge a rising U.S. presence in Southeast Asia.

The Chinese defense ministry announced Friday that the People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theater Command will send troops to Laos for the “Friendship Shield 2023” joint exercise.

China’s state television said that more than 900 people, including 200 Chinese forces, will simulate transnational armed criminal gang attacks from May 9 to 28.

The simulation improves on past “Peace Train” humanitarian medical rescue exercises involving Chinese and Laotian military in Laos.

China and Cambodia staged their first training in Cambodian waters this year, involving Southern Theater Command, whose operational region includes the South China Sea, which Beijing claims. Regional nations and international law claim China does not own the waterways.

Singapore’s defence ministry reported Friday that China and Singapore completed coordinated maneuvers in international waters in the southern South China Sea.

China’s defense ministry sent a working group to Laos, Vietnam, and Brunei in February to discuss regional security and “bilateral defence cooperation mechanisms.”

China’s diplomatic desire to connect with its southern neighbors coincides with its military ties with Southeast Asia.

On a November visit to Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Laotian President Thongloun Sisoulith to “build a shared future between China and Laos.”

The exercise in Laos comes as the US increases military exercises in the area with annual war games in Indonesia and Thailand and the largest-ever annual drill with ally the Philippines last month involving more than 17,000 people.

On Thursday, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. warned that allowing the U.S. to utilize Philippine military facilities would be “useful” if China invaded democratically controlled Taiwan, which China claims as its own.