Erik Green
The number of China’s joint military exercises has steadily increased between 2015 and 2025, peaking at 36 joint exercises in 2023. Southeast Asia has been the primary location of these exercises, albeit slightly more were conducted in China in 2024 and 2025. The PLA Army has been the most active lead service since 2015, but between 2021 and September 2025 the PLA Navy has carried out the most joint exercises.
In 2015 the PLA participated in a total of 19 joint exercises with partner militaries. This increased to 36 in 2023 and 34 in 2024.
2016 saw the largest annual increase of this period (discounting for anomalies because of the COVID-19 pandemic), when the number of joint exercises in which the PLA participated grew by 58% to 30.
Increases in the last few years have come through participation in bilateral rather than multilateral exercises. Between 2022 and 2024, the average annual growth rate in the number of bilateral exercises was 80%. In comparison, the number of multilateral exercises reduced from 13 to four between 2023 and 2024 (compared to 30 bilateral exercises in 2024).
In 2019 the PLA Army participated in 18 joint exercises compared to eight for the PLA Navy. Since 2021, however, the PLA Navy have replaced the PLA Army as the service participating in the highest number of joint exercises.
The PLA Air Force has participated in joint exercises less frequently than the PLA Army and PLA Navy.
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