{"id":7047,"date":"2010-05-08T19:20:02","date_gmt":"2010-05-09T03:50:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/?p=7047"},"modified":"2010-05-08T19:20:02","modified_gmt":"2010-05-09T03:50:02","slug":"china-extending-its-naval-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/?p=7047","title":{"rendered":"China Extending its Naval Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spiraling militarization in Asia is increasing the level of danger.\u00a0 The U.S.\u00a0 encirclement of China with bases and missile defenses is driving counter moves by China.<\/p>\n

Bruce Gagnon points out that “In addition to China’s expanding their Navy to keep their oil supply routes open, they are also putting part of their nuclear retaliatory forces on-board submarines in order to counter the U.S. deployment of “missile defense” systems in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and on Aegis destroyers off their coast.”<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Last year U.S. ships trying to spy on Chinese sub base in Hainan island was a source of friction between the U.S. and China.\u00a0\u00a0 If Chinese ships were to survey Guam\u00a0 or Hawai’i, I imagine the U.S. would get pretty upset.<\/p>\n

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http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/04\/24\/world\/asia\/24navy.html?pagewanted=all<\/a><\/p>\n

Chinese Military Seeks to Extend Its Naval Power<\/h2>\n

By EDWARD WONG<\/p>\n

Published: April 23, 2010<\/p>\n

YALONG BAY, China \u2014 The Chinese military is seeking to project naval power well beyond the Chinese coast, from the oil ports of the Middle East to the shipping lanes of the Pacific, where the United States Navy has long reigned as the dominant force, military officials and analysts say.<\/p>\n

China calls the new strategy \u201cfar sea defense,\u201d and the speed with which it is building long-range capabilities has surprised foreign military officials.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

In late March, two Chinese warships docked in Abu Dhabi, the first time the modern Chinese Navy made a port visit in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

The overall plan reflects China\u2019s growing sense of self-confidence and increasing willingness to assert its interests abroad. China\u2019s naval ambitions are being felt, too, in recent muscle flexing with the United States: in March, Chinese officials told senior American officials privately that China would brook no foreign interference in its territorial issues in the South China Sea, said a senior American official involved in China policy.<\/p>\n

The naval expansion will not make China a serious rival to American naval hegemony in the near future, and there are few indications that China has aggressive intentions toward the United States or other countries.<\/p>\n

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But China, now the world\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cpretty dramatic.\u201d China has tested long-range ballistic missiles that could be used against aircraft carriers, he said. After years of denials, Chinese officials have confirmed that they intend to deploy an aircraft carrier group within a few years.<\/p>\n

China is also developing a sophisticated submarine fleet that could try to prevent foreign naval vessels from entering its strategic waters if a conflict erupted in the region, said Admiral Willard and military analysts.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf particular concern is that elements of China\u2019s military modernization appear designed to challenge our freedom of action in the region,\u201d the admiral said.<\/p>\n

Yalong Bay, on the southern coast of Hainan island in the South China Sea, is the site of five-star beach resorts just west of a new underground submarine base. The base allows submarines to reach deep water within 20 minutes and roam the South China Sea, which has some of the world\u2019s busiest shipping lanes and areas rich in oil and natural gas that are the focus of territorial disputes between China and other Asian nations.<\/p>\n

That has caused concern not only among American commanders, but also among officials in Southeast Asian nations, which have been quietly acquiring more submarines, missiles and other weapons. \u201cRegional officials have been surprised,\u201d said Huang Jing, a scholar of the Chinese military at the National University of Singapore. \u201cWe were in a blinded situation. We thought the Chinese military was 20 years behind us, but we suddenly realized China is catching up.\u201d<\/p>\n

China is also pressing the United States to heed its claims in the region. In March, Chinese officials told two visiting senior Obama administration officials, Jeffrey A. Bader and James B. Steinberg, that China would not tolerate any interference in the South China Sea, now part of China\u2019s \u201ccore interest\u201d of sovereignty, said an American official involved in China policy. It was the first time the Chinese labeled the South China Sea a core interest, on par with Taiwan and Tibet, the official said.<\/p>\n

Another element of the Chinese Navy\u2019s new strategy is to extend its operational reach beyond the South China Sea and the Philippines to what is known as the \u201csecond island chain\u201d \u2014 rocks and atolls out in the Pacific, the official said. That zone significantly overlaps the United States Navy\u2019s area of supremacy.<\/p>\n

Japan is anxious, too. Its defense minister, Toshimi Kitazawa, said in mid-April that two Chinese submarines and eight destroyers were spotted on April 10 heading between two Japanese islands en route to the Pacific, the first time such a large Chinese flotilla had been seen so close to Japan. When two Japanese destroyers began following the Chinese ships, a Chinese helicopter flew within 300 feet of one of the destroyers, the Japanese Defense Ministry said.<\/p>\n

Since December 2008, China has maintained three ships in the Gulf of Aden to contribute to international antipiracy patrols, the first deployment of the Chinese Navy beyond the Pacific. The mission allows China to improve its navy\u2019s long-range capabilities, analysts say.<\/p>\n

A 2009 Pentagon report estimated Chinese naval forces at 260 vessels, including 75 \u201cprincipal combatants\u201d \u2014 major warships \u2014 and more than 60 submarines. The report noted the building of an aircraft carrier, and said China \u201ccontinues to show interest\u201d in acquiring carrier-borne jet fighters from Russia. The United States Navy has 286 battle-force ships and 3,700 naval aircraft, though ship for ship the American Navy is considered qualitatively superior to the Chinese Navy.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon does not classify China as an enemy force. But partly in reaction to China\u2019s growth, the United States has recently transferred submarines from the Atlantic to the Pacific so that most of its nuclear-powered attack submarines are now in the Pacific, said Bernard D. Cole, a former American naval officer and a professor at the National War College in Washington.<\/p>\n

The United States has also begun rotating three to four submarines on deployments out of Guam, reviving a practice that had ended with the cold war, Mr. Cole said.<\/p>\n

American vessels now frequently survey the submarine base at Hainan island, and that activity leads to occasional friction with Chinese ships. A survey mission last year by an American naval ship, the Impeccable, resulted in what Pentagon officials said was harassment by Chinese fishing vessels; the Chinese government said it had the right to block surveillance in those waters because they are an \u201cexclusive economic zone\u201d of China.<\/p>\n

The United States and China have clashing definitions of such zones, defined by a United Nations convention as waters within 200 nautical miles of a coast. The United States says international law allows a coastal country to retain only special commercial rights in the zones, while China contends the country can control virtually any activity within them.<\/p>\n

Military leaders here maintain that the Chinese Navy is purely a self-defense force. But the definition of self-defense has expanded to encompass broad maritime and economic interests, two Chinese admirals contended in March.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith our naval strategy changing now, we are going from coastal defense to far sea defense,\u201d Rear Adm. Zhang Huachen, deputy commander of the East Sea Fleet, said in an interview with Xinhua, the state news agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the expansion of the country\u2019s economic interests, the navy wants to better protect the country\u2019s transportation routes and the safety of our major sea lanes,\u201d he added. \u201cIn order to achieve this, the Chinese Navy needs to develop along the lines of bigger vessels and with more comprehensive capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The navy gets more than one-third of the overall Chinese military budget, \u201creflecting the priority Beijing currently places on the navy as an instrument of national security,\u201d Mr. Cole said. China\u2019s official military budget for 2010 is $78 billion, but the Pentagon says China spends much more than that amount. Last year, the Pentagon estimated total Chinese military spending at $105 billion to $150 billion, still much less than what the United States spends on defense. For comparison, the Obama administration proposed $548.9 billion as the Pentagon\u2019s base operating budget for next year.<\/p>\n

The Chinese Navy\u2019s most impressive growth has been in its submarine fleet, said Mr. Huang, the scholar in Singapore. It recently built at least two Jin-class submarines, the first regularly active ones in the fleet with ballistic missile capabilities, and two more are under construction. Two Shang-class nuclear-powered attack submarines recently entered service.<\/p>\n

Countries in the region have responded with their own acquisitions, said Carlyle A. Thayer, a professor at the Australian Defense Force Academy. In December, Vietnam signed an arms deal with Russia that included six Kilo-class submarines, which would give Vietnam the most formidable submarine fleet in Southeast Asia. Last year, Malaysia took delivery of its first submarine, one of two ordered from France, and Singapore began operating one of two Archer-class submarines bought from Sweden.<\/p>\n

Last fall, during a speech in Washington, Lee Kuan Yew, the former Singaporean leader, reflected widespread anxieties when he noted China\u2019s naval rise and urged the United States to maintain its regional presence. \u201cU.S. core interest requires that it remains the superior power on the Pacific,\u201d he said. \u201cTo give up this position would diminish America\u2019s role throughout the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thom Shanker contributed reporting from Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spiraling militarization in Asia is increasing the level of danger.\u00a0 The U.S.\u00a0 encirclement of China with bases and missile defenses is driving counter moves by China. Bruce Gagnon points out that “In addition to China’s expanding their Navy to keep their oil supply routes open, they are also putting part of their nuclear retaliatory forces … <\/p>\n

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