Yalong Bay (Hainan): The Chinese military is seeking to
project naval power well beyond the Chinese coast, from the oil ports of West Asia to the shipping lanes of the Pacific, where the
United States Navy has long reigned as the dominant force, say military
officials and analysts.
Chinacalls the new strategy “far sea defence,” and the speed with which it is
building long-range capabilities has surprised foreign military officials. The
strategy is a sharp break from the traditional, narrower doctrine of preparing
for war over the self-governing island of Taiwan or defending
the Chinese coast.
Now, Chinese admirals say they want warships to escort
commercial vessels that are crucial to the country’s economy, from as far as
the Persian Gulf to the Strait of Malacca, in southeast Asia, and to help
secure Chinese interests in the resource-rich South and East China Seas.
In late March, two Chinese warships docked in Abu Dhabi, the first time the modern Chinese Navy made a
port visit in West Asia.
The overall plan reflects China’s growing sense of
self-confidence and increasing willingness to assert its interests abroad.
China’s
naval ambitions are being felt, too, in recent muscle flexing with the United States: In March, Chinese officials told
senior American officials privately that Chinawould brook no foreign interference in its territorial issues in the South
China Sea, said a senior American official involved in China policy.
The naval expansion will not make Chinaa serious rival to American naval hegemony in the near future, and there are
few indications that Chinahas aggressive intentions toward the US or other countries.
But China,
now the world’s leading exporter and a giant buyer of oil and other natural
resources, is also no longer content to trust the security of sea lanes to the
Americans, and its definition of its own core interests has expanded along with
its economic clout. In late March, Adm. Robert F. Willard, the leader of the
United States Pacific Command, said in Congressional testimony that recent
Chinese military developments were “pretty dramatic.” – (Deccan Chronicle)
