The fastest-growing navy over the past 30 years is, by far, China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). The fleet has discarded most of its Cold War-era ships \u2013 including many designs that dated from the 1950s and 1960s \u2013 and thousands of small, ineffective craft in favor of new, modern, ocean-going warships outfitted with increasingly sophisticated and capable weapons and sensors.
Along with the Navy, China has also invested heavily in a new Coast Guard, formed in 2013 when four maritime law enforcement agencies were combined into one. As of 2016, the Chinese Coast Guard could boast 205 ships, far outpacing Japan (78 ships) and Vietnam (55). The large “white hull” Coast Guard fleet allows Chinese ships to be aggressive in at-sea encounters, where ramming and the use of fire hoses is prevalent — lowering the risk of incidents turning deadly and casting territorial disputes more in the legal domain rather than an aggressive military undertaking. \u00a0Another element of increasing concern is the Maritime Militia, a force of thousands of part-time sailors and smaller craft that can be called upon to intervene in incidents where the government does not want an overt presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The steady growth of China\u2019s maritime power prompted the US to move to the so-called “Pacific Pivot,” a rebalance of forces from the Atlantic to the Pacific theaters. Beginning in 2016, US Pacific Fleet carriers began to concentrate their deployments in the western Pacific, and US forces of all kinds are increasingly spending time in the South China Sea to enhance US presence and counteract China\u2019s. The PLAN\u2019s growth is also a major factor driving modernization and expansion of the Japanese and Vietnamese navies, among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n