RIVAL shows of strength began in the China seas today, as the US and Filipino navies launched their largest combat exercises in decades just as an international naval summit kicked off in the Chinese city of Qingdao.

Over 16,000 US and Filipino troops will be joined by a few hundred French and Australian personnel for conflict scenarios across the South China Sea, where the Philippines is one of several countries with territorial and maritime rights disputes with Beijing.

China accused the Philippines of “ganging up” on it with a power from outside the region that had no business there, a clear reference to the US.

Yet US naval officials were present in Qingdao for the Western Pacific Naval Symposium, alongside Australian, Cambodian, Chilean, French and Indian officers.

The summit too was a display of might in the headquarters of China’s North Sea Fleet. China’s navy overtook the US’s as the world’s biggest by number of hulls last year.

China is able to expand its navy much faster than Western powers because it has maintained a strong domestic shipbuilding industry, making the production of ships of all kinds much faster and cheaper. Last year China produced over 1,000 ocean-going ships, while the US built just 10.

US unions have petitioned its government to charge Chinese-built vessels for docking in US ports in a bid to encourage more US-based shipbuilding.

In Qingdao, China’s Central Military Commission vice-chairman Zhang Youxia called for tensions to be defused, saying: “Decoupling, friction and confrontation will only divide the world into isolated islands watching each other suspiciously.”

But he also warned that China would not tolerate Western interference in reunification with Taiwan.