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China-Japan-Koreas
China's Hu calls for powerful, combat-ready navy
2006-12-28
BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese president and commander-in-chief Hu Jintao urged the building of a powerful navy that is prepared "at any time" for military struggle, state media reported on Thursday.

At a meeting of delegates to a Communist Party meeting of the navy on Wednesday, Hu said China, whose military build-up has been a source of friction with the United States, was a major maritime country whose naval capability must be improved. "We should strive to build a powerful navy that adapts to the needs of our military's historical mission in this new century and at this new stage," he said in comments splashed on the front pages of the party mouthpiece People's Daily and the People's Liberation Army Daily. "We should make sound preparations for military struggles and ensure that the forces can effectively carry out missions at any time," said Hu, pictured in green military garb for the occasion.
Those missions include grabbing each and every bit of land that was ever once part of imperial China. And the lands next to those. And all the water in-between.
China's naval expansion includes a growing submarine fleet and new ships with "blue water" capability, fuelling fears in the United States that its military could alter the balance of power in Asia with consequences for Taiwan.
To which we should be paying attention.
Analysts say China sees a stronger navy as a way to secure energy supplies and seaborne trade routes to help ease security fears over supplies of resources and oil it needs to feed its booming economy.
That's understandable in a power-politics way: every country (until recently, as witness the EU) that has had a strong trade policy and that has depended on overseas goods has built a navy to protect those interests. If China indeed needs more oil from the Middle East and Africa, it's going to build a navy to reflect that.
Hu also called for the "strict management of the navy according to law", a possible reference to a scandal in which a vice admiral was jailed for life on a charge of embezzlement. Wang Shouye was convicted by a military court earlier this month, Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po reported, making him the most senior Chinese military officer to be jailed for corruption. Earlier this year, Wang was sacked as navy deputy commander for bad morals and using his position to demand and accept bribes and violate laws and discipline, the report said.
Posted by:Steve White

#12  China's PLAN remains, for the time being, predomin a LITTORAL NAVY with minor or Work-In-Progress/Dev "Blue Water" capabilities. The greatest threat from China is its internal, Gubmint = National historical dedication to fighting and winning a war REGARDLESS OF LEVELS OF CASUALTIES. China remembers how the high casualties from fighting agz US-led UN Command forces in KOREAN WAR 1 nearly came to threatening the new CCCC's hold on post-Civil War/1949 mainland China - this is a major reason why under ASSASSIN'S MACE + "LOCAL/WAR ZONE" concepts China's conventional forces will be protected under the cover of "TAKE-AND-HOLD", NUCLEARIZED LOCAL "ACTIVE DEFENSE" AND BACKED UP BY GEOPOL/MILPOL, STRATEGIC IMMEDIATE NUCLEAR ESCALATION, i.e. threat of nuclear mutual = worldwide self-destruction. POST 9-11 AYSMMETRIC WARFARE > priority is to induce = force the USA unto geopol isolationism and anti-sovereign, anti-Amer OWG + National-Global Socialism. It matters not to America's enemies whether Amer ultimately is destroyed by the world via violent warfare = globally expands and expands unto self-implosion like the USSR.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2006-12-28 23:46  

#11  Don't sweat the small stuff. Every capital ship they build will cost them billions to equip and operate and for what? The opportunity to see the USN put them all on the bottom in two days if they ever tried to use them?

The world's second largest navy is a waste of money if opposed by the largest. Look back to WWI and ask what value was the huge investment in the German fleet of capital ships? The Soviet navy was also large and now sits rusting in its ports. Instead of ships, worry about air lifters, marine brigades, and nuclear missiles. Those actually matter.
Posted by: rammer   2006-12-28 23:39  

#10  One of the values a stronger navy would have for China is that it would serve as a very strong deterrent against the seizure or manipulation of Chinese assets in the USA in the event of financial/economic difficulties between the two countries, a conflict far likelier than a military one.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2006-12-28 20:17  

#9  Time to deploy the "flying crowbars" defense system. A half-dozen of them could take out ANY Chinese naval vessel, including shallow-running (I.E., missile) submarines.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2006-12-28 19:40  

#8  Forgot to include the source for the Jerry Pournelle quote.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2006-12-28 19:15  

#7  The biggest vulnerability of the US with respect to the PRC is financial/economic. The author Jerry Pournelle said it best:
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were intended to make it easier for people to own houses. By putting so much money into the system they created an artificial boom, a bubble. The whole darned thing is fueled with money borrowed from China. The result is a bubble that has been a big boon to property tax collectors, but saddles the middle class with enormous debts. More debts come from college loans. We are a nation of debtors.

Of course one "solution" is to confiscate the foreign investments and debts and money loaned. That has been done before. Kings and Emperors used to do it with aplomb.

The housing "boom" has been pure inflation: my house is worth 25 times what I paid for it 40 years ago. That makes no sense whatever. To think that a housing boom is fueling an expanding economy, particularly when many of the construction jobs go to illegal immigrants and unskilled labor, is a form of insanity only an economist could exhibit. Most of us know better.

The US doesn't MAKE very much. We have a booming economy based on exporting jobs and importing the stuff the people whose jobs were exported used to make. And paying for it by borrowing from China. Water always runs downhill. Eventually it hits bottom.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2006-12-28 19:15  

#6  gromky: Want to torpedo the Chinese? Make them fight amongst one another. China alternates between being (mostly) unified and being divided.

The Chinese empire will occasionally break up and re-form. I don't think we can actually make them fight each other. But every so often, they will fight each other. Not for the heck of it, but just as during the Roman empire, various secondary power holders would look at the ruler's perks and think - "Hey! I could do that job". If we're lucky, some contenders might even think of a north east Asian mainland that doesn't necessarily include a single large country. A dozen countries in what is now China would introduce a healthier power balance in Asia.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2006-12-28 18:47  

#5  The thing is, China has never had a real navy. They're historically a land power.

Want to torpedo the Chinese? Make them fight amongst one another. China alternates between being (mostly) unified and being divided.
Posted by: gromky   2006-12-28 16:31  

#4  One other goal of THE MISSION: the imbedding of DOLLAR STORES within every nation of the world. Commies fist tried floride in the 1950's, and now cheap merchandise to help us destruct from within. Only half joking...I'm damn sick of seeing "made in China" on everything. Yesterday at an upscale retro oriented toy store, I saw a bag of plastic soldiers. Half were in khaki U.S. military uniforms and the other half in bright red. The clear plastic bag was labeled something to the effect: "U.S. Military vs. Red Commies". And, you guessed it, the label on the back of the bag read "Made in China"!
Posted by: borgboy   2006-12-28 16:12  

#3  Combat-ready against whom? Are our politicians and military even paying attention to this? We really need to impose some tariffs that implode China now before it can steady itself enough to begin asserting military power. In terms of worst possible outcomes in this new century only Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons will exceed the monumental mistake of allowing China an uninhibited military buildup.
Posted by: Zenster   2006-12-28 15:40  

#2  Two interesting data points:

1) To speed deployment and lower costs, the US military is using a lot of off-the-shelf computer and networking hardware.

2) Many American firms have outsourced development and manufacture of that hardware to China.
Posted by: DMFD   2006-12-28 15:15  

#1  Lots of information on the PLAN here and here.
Posted by: Mike   2006-12-28 13:03  

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