The point you seem to be missing there Nemo is that the entire exercise, according to that cite, consisted of around 100,000. That’s a far cry from your assertion of 150,000 (or 100,000) at sea as part of the actual invasion force exercise. It’s a huge difference.
The reason I’m personally skeptical is that, as I said, I don’t believe that the US, who is far, FAR more able militarily than China, could put together and support a 100,000 man invasion force for such an exercise. And you are saying China could do that in 2001…that’s off the charts for something that they could realistically do, unless they are just talking about loading a bunch of light troops on a ton of cruise ships and sailing them around the harbor while claiming it was a viable force for doing more than shore patrol at a picnic.
Not saying you didn’t read about this in your offline documentation, but I’d take it with a HUGE grain of salt and also put it in some context. When no European nation could do something, and even the US probably can’t, then it’s a good bet that the Chinese most likely can’t either…especially not back in 2001. Certainly, I would be skeptical until I saw multiple sources corroborating it, and I’d want some military heavy hitters to be among those saying they did what they say they did.