China's Military Presence Grows on Doorstep of New U.S. Partner
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
China has rapidly expanded its military footprint across the Indian Ocean, conducting exercises from the Red Sea to the Malacca Strait and deepening ties with key regional players—including some U.S. allies, analysis by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) reveals.
Newsweek has reached out to Chinese and Indian authorities for comment.
Why It Matters
China's growing expansion in the Indian Ocean—an essential route for global trade—has prompted India to step up its naval activity to counter regional challenges.
While not a formal U.S. ally, India has become a key strategic partner in Washington's efforts to balance China's influence, with President Donald Trump once calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi a "great guy."
Although the United States has historically prioritized the Pacific, it signaled a broader regional outlook by renaming Pacific Command to Indo-Pacific Command in 2018, acknowledging the Indian Ocean's rising strategic importance.
Map showing China's presence in the Indian Ocean republished with permission from the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Map showing China's presence in the Indian Ocean republished with permission from the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
International Institute for Strategic Studies
What To Know
IISS, a global thinktank, highlighted China's military presence and the drills it had conducted in the Indian Ocean from 2020 to 2025.
"China's military deployments and presence in the Indian Ocean is significantly different today compared to a decade ago," IISS Senior Fellow Darshana M. Baruah who co-authored the analysis, told Newsweek on Wednesday.
China has deployed anti-submarine warfare assets across key points in the Indian Ocean and held annual maritime exercises with Iran and Russia between 2022 and 2025, the recent report noted. China is also deepening ties with U.S. Arab allies.
China's expanding presence in the Indian Ocean could help it secure critical energy transit routes and protect its sea lines of communication, while deepening strategic ties with Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia.
One of China's biggest challenges is gaining operational experience and familiarity with the environment, compared to its competitors, India and the U.S. in particular, Baruah noted.
While India remains Washington's primary strategic partner in the region, the U.S. presence at the island of Diego Garcia offers an enduring foothold in the Indian Ocean.
India's already uneasy relationship with China has grown more tense amid Beijing's deepening alignment with Pakistan—its nuclear rival—with expanded military cooperation, notable in Pakistan's deployment of Chinese-made fighter jets in the latest aerial conflict with India.
What People Are Saying
International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS): "Along with securing its interests, Beijing has established itself and its capabilities in the area, anticipating any potential future conflict in the Western Pacific."
Darshana M. Baruah, Senior Fellow for Indo-Pacific Defence and Strategy, IISS told Newsweek: "India considers the Indian Ocean its primary area of interest and is a resident player. Developments and strategic threat in the Indian Ocean will always have an important impact on India's maritime calculations."
What Happens Next
A carrier strike group—and potentially a Chinese aircraft carrier—are expected to enter the Indian Ocean theatre, signaling a more permanent and assertive naval presence in the region, according to IISS.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
State implements reviews of Harvard visa applicants' social media accounts
The State Department has told U.S. consulates and embassies to immediately begin reviewing the social media accounts of Harvard's student visa applicants for antisemitism in what it called a pilot program that could be rolled out for colleges nationwide. The cable signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, obtained by POLITICO, was sent late Thursday. It says consular officers should 'conduct a complete screening of the online presence of any nonimmigrant visa applicant seeking to travel to Harvard University for any purpose.' The policy will take effect immediately, per the cable. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The document puts into motion a proposal the Trump administration floated earlier this week for expanded social media vetting of all foreign students applying to U.S. colleges, pausing new appointments for student visa applicants in the meantime. Increased social media vetting did already exist, but it was previously primarily intended for returning students who may have participated in protests against Israel's actions in Gaza. It also adds to the White House's battle with elite academic institutions over alleged mishandling of cases of antisemitism during campus protests in response to Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip against militant group Hamas. The cable specifically identifies antisemitism and antisemitic viewpoints as the focus for consular officers but does not spell out what specifically would rise to the level of inadmissible antisemitism in the eyes of State Department leadership. It says that the Harvard review process 'will also serve as a pilot for expanded screening and vetting of visa applicants' and that 'this pilot will be expanded over time,' indicating it will likely reach other universities in the Trump administration's crosshairs. Notably, State Department leadership wants consular officers to consider 'whether the lack of any online presence, or having social media accounts restricted to 'private' or with limited visibility, may be reflective of evasiveness and call into question the applicant's credibility.' The cable also instructs consular officers to inform applicants that private social media accounts could be viewed as evading vetting and request they make their accounts public while the Fraud Prevention Unit reviews their case. The new guidance comes as the U.S. government continues its showdown with Harvard for alleged failures to address antisemitism on campus amid the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. The federal government has stripped Harvard of billions in research funding and entered in dueling litigation with the Cambridge, Massachusetts, school. It had also suspended Harvard's ability to enroll international students by briefly blocking visa applications before that decision was blocked by a federal judge. It also comes as the administration has targeted other academic communities, including Chinese nationals studying at U.S. colleges and universities. Rubio said Wednesday the administration would 'aggressively revoke' visas of Chinese nationals studying in sensitive fields, the potential implementation of which has flummoxed State Department officials.
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump signals fresh trade tensions with China
US President Donald Trump signaled renewed trade tensions with China on Friday, arguing that Beijing had "violated" a deal to de-escalate tariffs, at a time when both sides appeared deadlocked in negotiations. Trump's post on his Truth Social platform came hours after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that trade talks with China were "a bit stalled," in an interview with broadcaster Fox News. The world's two biggest economies had agreed this month to temporarily lower staggeringly high tariffs they had imposed on each other, in a pause to last 90 days, after talks between top officials in Geneva. But on Friday, Trump wrote that: "China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US," without providing further details. Asked about the post on CNBC, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer took aim at Beijing for continuing to "slow down and choke off things like critical minerals." He added that the United States' trade deficit with China "continues to be enormous," and that Washington was not seeing major shifts in Beijing's behavior. On Thursday, Bessent had suggested that Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping could get involved in the situation. He said there could be a call between both leaders eventually. Since Trump returned to the presidency in January, he has imposed sweeping tariffs on most US trading partners, with especially high rates on imports from China. New tit-for-tat levies from both sides reached three digits before the de-escalation earlier this month, where Washington agreed to temporarily reduce its additional tariffs on Chinese imports from 145 percent to 30 percent. China, meanwhile, lowered its added duties from 125 percent to 10 percent. The US tariff level remains higher as it also includes a 20 percent levy that the Trump administration recently imposed on Chinese goods over the country's alleged role in the illicit drug trade -- an issue that Beijing has pushed back against. The high tariff levels, while they were still in place, forced much trade between both countries to grind to a halt, as businesses paused shipments to try and wait for both governments to reach an agreement to lower the levies. Trump's tariff plans are also facing legal challenges. A trade court ruled this week that the president overstepped his authority in tapping emergency economic powers to justify sweeping tariffs. It blocked the most wide-ranging levies since Trump returned to office, although this ruling has since been put on hold for now as an appeals process is ongoing. The ruling left intact, however, tariffs that the Trump administration imposed on sector-specific imports such as steel and autos. bys/st
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump Needs to Get Real on Trade
U.S. President Donald Trump displays a signed executive order during a tariff announcement in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. Credit - Jim Lo Scalzo—EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images The roller coaster that is President Donald Trump's trade war steamed ahead this week. On Wednesday, a federal district court dealt a major blow to Trump when it ruled that his sweeping global tariffs were illegal. On Thursday, an appeals court ruled the levies could remain in place for now. And then, on Friday, Trump accused China of violating a preliminary trade deal and suggested he would respond. As all this unfolds and the U.S. legal system lumbers toward a final verdict, one thing is clear: the White House needs to get a real trade strategy, and fast. Read More: The Five Small Businesses That Helped Block Trump's Tariffs Few issues are more fundamental to Trump's worldview than trade. For Trump, trade is not merely an economic issue, but a litmus test of whether America is winning or losing on the world stage. Even matters of war and peace, such as Taiwan and the South China Sea, have seemingly taken a back seat to Trump's stubborn fixation on China's trade surplus with the U.S. During his first term, Trump launched a trade war against China with a goal, as he framed it, of punishing China's unfair trade practices. The trade war ended with a Phase-one deal wherein China promised to increase its future purchases of American products and enact structural reforms. Ultimately, this deal failed to deliver. The Chinese underperformed on their pledges. Trump blamed the Biden Administration for not enforcing the deal. Unbowed by the disappointment of his first trade war with China, Trump launched a second one when he returned to office earlier this year. This time, he surrounded himself with loyalists who supported his instincts for public confrontation and rapid escalation to force China to the negotiating table. Trump's approach appeared to be built on an assumption that China's economy was brittle, and Beijing would buckle under pressure. Read More: Why Trump Will Blink First on China That bet backfired. China retaliated with counter-tariffs. Beijing also implemented novel new export controls on critical minerals and magnets upon which U.S. industries depend. Chinese policymakers moved swiftly to shore up China's economy while expanding trade ties with other partners. Rather than fold, China punched back. As the economic costs of the trade war mounted on both sides of the Pacific, Trump designated his Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to negotiate a 90-day truce. The Chinese accepted. Trump's trade war with China is not over. It is merely paused. Trump will continue returning to the well of grievance about America's trade imbalance with China until he can secure a deal that he can sell as a win to the American public. But therein lies the rub. Based on my recent exchanges with Chinese officials and experts, it seems Beijing has taken America's measure in recent weeks and concluded that China has greater capacity to withstand economic pain than the U.S. China's leaders lack confidence that any agreement with the mercurial Trump will last. At a more fundamental level, China's leaders are unclear on what specifically Trump seeks—and what he would offer in return. On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Bessent said that U.S.-China talks were 'a bit stalled' and suggested Trump and Xi Jinping 'have a call.' But until the Trump Administration can articulate its concrete objectives, its strategy for achieving them, and its vision of a productive process for doing so, the U.S.-China trade war will stay stalemated. Read More: It's Time for Trump and Xi to Meet To be clear, the Trump Administration has legitimate grievances about China's unfair economic practices. China's market access barriers, forced technology transfers, and state-directed subsidies to preferred industries and businesses have created massive global trade distortions. But grievance is not a strategy. And daily improvisation is not a formula for progress in negotiations. The 90-day trade truce gives the Trump Administration time and space to do its homework. That means discarding the failed assumptions that Xi will cave under pressure and instead doing the hard work of homing in on what specifically Trump is aiming to achieve and what he is prepared to give in return. In the end, trade policy is not about scoring points or undermining competitors. It is about making America stronger, safer, and more prosperous. If Trump wants to succeed, he will need to move beyond theatrics and prepare for the grinding process of negotiating with China that awaits. Contact us at letters@
