The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy Type 052D destroyer Jiaozuo was confirmed on July 30 to have joined the Russian Navy for joint exercises in the Gulf of Finland. This follows the Jiaozuo’s visit to St. Petersburg, and comes amid growing signs of Chinese support for Russia’s position in its ongoing conflict with NATO. The Russian Defence Ministry reported regarding the deployment: “A PASSEX-type joint Russian-Chinese exercise took place at the naval military ground of the Baltic Fleet’s Leningrad naval base in the Gulf of Finland. It involved the The Soobrazitelny corvette of the Russian Baltic Fleet and the Jiaozuo destroyer of the Chinese Navy.” The crews detected the mock enemy’s mine barriers and destroyed them using artillery, before practicing joint search and rescue and aiding a mock battle damaged surface ship, providing rescue support and medical aid to its crew.
The deployment of a Type 052D destroyer to the Gulf of Finland comes less than three weeks after the deployment Chinese forces to Belarus unprecedented joint exercises near its borders with NATO. It also comes less than a week after the first ever joint Sino-Russian bomber patrol off the coast of Alaska. The Type 052D currently forms the backbone of the Chinese Navy’s surface combat fleet, with the Jiaozuo being 23rd ship of the class which entered service in January 2022. Each destroyer deploys 88 vertical launch cells, 24 of which are received for HHQ-10 surface to air missiles, while the remaining 64 deploy a combination of missile classes including the HHQ-9 long range surface to air missile, the YJ-18 anti ship cruise missile, and the YJ-21 hypersonic missile.