Display: Chinese personnel fire their pistols to signal the start of a naval exercise as they stand on a vessel on the East China Sea. Credit:Reuters “China under Xi Jinping has become a bona fide national security state where external and internal security concerns are already trumping economic development in the leadership's priority list,” said Miles Yu, a professor and China expert at the United States Naval Academy. China’s airline regulator on Saturday warned of “massive flight delays” across eastern and central China, saying traffic capacity of some domestic routes will drop by as much as 65 per cent, with airports in major economic hubs including Shanghai, Nanjing and Wenzhou among 23 airports affected. China’s Civil Aviation Administration had previously asked carriers to cut back 25 per cent of their international and domestic flights from July 20 to August 15. State media reports say 10 units, including air defence groups and other branches of its armed forces, from six military regions will take part in drills that will stretch across three months from mid-July.

The extent of the nationwide military exercises, details of which have trickled through in the past week, have helped explain what had previously been a baffling air traffic snarl over China’s eastern cities. At its worst, last Monday, more than 200 flights at Shanghai’s Pudong International and Hongqiao airports were cancelled and another 120 delayed, after a similar round of cancellations on July 14. The drills overlap with the August 1 anniversary of the founding of China’s People’s Liberation Army, while strident editorials harshly critical of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe were emblazoned across much of China’s state-run media outlets on Friday to mark the 120th anniversary of the outbreak of the first Sino-Japanese War. The English-language China Daily said Japan was "strikingly similar" to what it was 120 years ago, pointing out that the country, as it was in 1894, is "aspiring for 'greatness' through expanding its overseas military presence. And its foremost target is, again, China". "The Japanese prime minister's rhetoric about peace may be engaging. But never forget Japan's extreme duality. Its wars of aggression have always been launched in the mode of surprise attacks while waving the banner of peace," said the official newspaper published in English.

Another important date on China’s calendar is August 15, marking Japan’s surrender in World War II. “As these dates tend to spark controversy due to the long-held differences over the interpretation by China and Japan over their shared history, Beijing will likely use the extensive exercises as a way of ratcheting up pressure on Tokyo,” Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun said. Extensive military control of Chinese airspace – only 20 per cent is open to civil aviation – is often cited as a major cause of flight delays in the country. Airline industry monitor FlightStats rates the airports in Beijing and Shanghai as the worst among 35 major international airports for on-time departures. Only 18 per cent of flights from Beijing, and 28 per cent from Shanghai, left on time. Istanbul was the only other airport in the survey that had less than half of its flights depart on time. But even by Chinese standards, the length, scale and severity of the delays has been unprecedented and has sparked an angry reaction, most visibly on social media, especially after one flight attendants group chirpily suggested on its official microblog that travellers bring ample water, snacks and “for those who can, a sleeping bag” to bide their time at the airport.

Huang Dong, president of the Macau International Military Institute, said military drills usually hit a peak around this time of the year, but had the potential to increase significantly in the future due to ongoing tensions between China and Japan.