Taiwan estimates China’s military exercises last year cost record amounts

China spent $21 billion on military exercises in the Taiwan Strait, the East and South China Sea and the Western Pacific last year, nearly 40% higher than 2023, according to Taiwan government estimates based on its tracking of aircraft and ships and working out the cost of fuel and other expenses, Reuters writes.

In 2024, Chinese aircraft, including J-10 fighter jets, H-6 bombers, and drones, made nearly 12,000 flights in the region, amounting to about 37,000 hours in the air, while the country’s navy made more than 86,000 sailings, including of aircraft carriers and destroyers, amounting to a total time at sea of more than 2 million hours.

Roughly 34% of the Chinese naval journeys were made in the highly contested South China Sea, about 28% were in the East China Sea, and nearly 14% were in the Taiwan Strait, the report shows.

“China’s ongoing military expansion and grey-zone provocations are severely undermining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region,” Taiwan’s defense ministry said.

The cost of these exercises amounted to about a quarter of Taiwan’s 2024 defense budget.