The Bear and Dragon Rehearse Control of Strategic Sea Gates

Russia and China concluded joint naval patrols last week, strengthening their combined ability to project military force far from their own shores and to challenge control of the world’s critical sea lanes.

The “Maritime Cooperation 2026” patrol began on July 13 off the coast of Qingdao in China’s Shandong Province. The force consisted of the Chinese Navy’s guided-missile destroyers Anshan and Kaifeng and its comprehensive supply vessel Kekexilihu, as well as Russia’s Rezky naval corvette.

From Qingdao, the Russians and Chinese passed through the Miyako Strait, which is one of a few deep-water passages through Japan’s Ryukyu archipelago that the Russian and Chinese navies use to access the western Pacific. They then traversed Etorofu Strait and Soya Strait, both important choke points, as well as key littoral areas of the western Pacific, Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan. Finally, on July 29, they reached Vladivostok, Russia, where the operation concluded.

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These waters contain some of East Asia’s most strategically important maritime choke points and corridors. And Russia and China were not just sailing warships through them, but actively improving their ability to contest, threaten, influence and control access to them.

This was clear from the wide range of joint exercises they conducted all along the route, including maritime boarding operations, live-fire drills, counterterrorism procedures and ship-borne helicopter cross-deck landings. The joint drills also included intricate rehearsals of intercepting and boarding vessels of other countries. China’s Defense Ministry said the Chinese warships also “conducted multiple combat-oriented training exercises under simulated real-time maritime and aerial scenarios.”

The locations of these exercises were especially telling. Russia and China do not possess the naval strength to dominate vast expanses of the world’s oceans.

But narrow maritime choke points are a different matter.

In these confined corridors, maritime traffic is funneled through a small area, so even a limited naval force can have a disproportionate impact. In such a “sea gate,” a naval force has a far greater ability to control the movement of ships, disrupt commerce, and project military power. For 17 days, Russia and China rehearsed operations in precisely these kinds of locations—practicing the skills they would need to control who can and who cannot sail through some of the world’s most critical maritime passages.

The joint patrol is a significant development. It is yet more evidence of the remarkably deep and powerful military partnership that Russia and China are building. The Trumpet watches this partnership closely because Bible prophecy warns that a colossal Asian military power will emerge in the modern era and will profoundly shake the world.

Prophecy even contains specific warnings that this power will use its naval strength to control critical sea gates, restrict the United States and its allies from vital maritime regions, and eventually join with other naval powers in a massive siege against America and its allies.

This is evident in Isaiah 23, which describes a “mart of nations,” a far-reaching economic and strategic alliance involving not only Russia and China but also other Asian nations, as well as European powers. Putting Isaiah 23 alongside Ezekiel 27 and Deuteronomy 28:52, it is clear that this globe-girdling economic alliance will ultimately besiege the United States by cutting it off from global trade.

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry explains in his booklet Isaiah’s End-Time Vision: “China and the giants of Asia,” will form a “brief alliance” with a “German-led Holy Roman Empire. … All of them are going to besiege America, Britain and the Jewish nation.”

The significance of last month’s naval patrols extends far beyond the exercises themselves. They serve as evidence that these nations are preparing to challenge the existing global order with a level of military coordination—and with a vast coalition of partners—the world has never seen before.

To understand where Bible prophecy says this is ultimately leading and the great hope that lies beyond the current troubling developments, order your free copy of Isaiah’s End-Time Vision.