China airs rare live-fire salvo by four Type 071 landing ships on the eve of Keen Sword

China's navy has publicised footage of four Type 071 amphibious transport docks from its Southern Theatre Command firing live rounds side by side, a rare display that Taiwanese and Hong Kong media highlighted on Sunday, Oct. 18, a day before the United States and Japan open their large Keen Sword exercise. The ships named in the footage are the Kunlunshan, Changbaishan, Wuzhishan and Qilianshan, which Chinese military media said sailed as a formation from a landing ship flotilla to an undisclosed sea area for combat-oriented training in several subjects.

According to Hong Kong outlet HK01, the clip was first posted on Oct. 14 by the official social media account of the People's Liberation Army Navy. A 41-second version then ran on the website of state broadcaster CCTV on the evening of Oct. 17 and quickly became a trending topic online. Taiwan's Central News Agency also reported that the navy released the images through its official account on Oct. 14.

HK01 noted that the four vessels are not different types of landing ship but all belong to the same Type 071 class, and that they entered service more than a decade apart. It described the joint firing as an unusual chance to compare how China's domestically built amphibious ships have changed over successive production batches. The reports did not say where the drill took place, which weapons were fired or how many rounds were used.

The amphibious drill was publicised as Chinese maritime safety bureaus issued a run of navigation warnings along the mainland coast. Notices from Sanya, Zhanjiang, Wenzhou, Yancheng, Dalian and Qinhuangdao set out six closure areas for live firing and military training across the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea. Five of those areas were scheduled for activity between Oct. 12 and Oct. 17, while a zone in the southern Yellow Sea off Yancheng is closed for live firing from Oct. 15 to Nov. 30, a span of 47 days that the reports said is longer than for routine exercises.

Analysts cited in the Hong Kong reporting described the coastal drills as a coordinated, multi-point effort covering several strategic points along the first island chain, and said the timing lined up with the upcoming US-Japan exercise and with allied deployments in the region. Taiwan's Central News Agency relayed that assessment while noting that it came from Hong Kong media, including the Beijing-backed Ta Kung Pao.

Keen Sword is due to run from Oct. 19 to Oct. 29 at locations across Japan. Citing Kyodo News, the Central News Agency said about 45,000 members of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and about 12,000 US troops will take part. The United States plans to send two advanced anti-ship and air defence missile systems to Japan's Yonaguni Island, which lies about 110 kilometres from Taiwan.

Ta Kung Pao, as relayed by United Daily News, quoted Chinese military commentator Song Zhongping as saying the US-Japan drills deliberately focus on Taiwan and that missiles on Yonaguni would pose a direct military threat to security in the Taiwan Strait. He argued that the PLA's routine joint training across several seas was a necessary response. Those views are Chinese state-aligned commentary and were not independently assessed in the reports.

The landing ship footage adds to a busy period of Chinese military signalling. The Central News Agency noted that China's navy announced on Oct. 14 that the Liaoning carrier group had gone to the Western Pacific for training, and that Chinese state media on Oct. 11 aired rare images of an unannounced night-time emergency deployment by a Rocket Force unit armed with the DF-26 missile, which has a maximum range of 4,000 kilometres and can reach Guam.

Because the images were released by the Chinese military itself, the account of the amphibious drill rests on Beijing's own presentation. Even so, putting all four Southern Theatre Type 071 ships through live firing together, and promoting it just as Keen Sword begins, gives Taiwan and its partners a public signal about the readiness of the amphibious lift China would need in any operation against the island.