China puts naval power on display; pledges peace

Source: Associated Press

QINGDAO, China (AP) — Chinese President Hu Jintao sought Thursday to reassure the international community over China's rising military strength before presiding over a naval display highlighting Beijing's ambitions of becoming a major sea power.

In remarks to U.S. and other foreign naval commanders, Hu repeated China's standard position that it would never threaten other nations or seek regional dominance.

China's military, including the fast modernizing navy, "will always be a force for the preservation of world peace and advancement of common development," Hu said.

China's annual double-digit percentage increases in military spending have rattled its Asian neighbors and Washington has warned Beijing's failure to clearly declare its intentions could prompt further unease.



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It's a shame that hazegray.org's World Navies Today hasn't been updated in years. But it's worth comparing China's status in 2001 to its status today.

Notably, the PLAN (People's Liberation Army Navy--no question who works for whom in China) has launched at least one and possibly two Type 094 ballistic missile submarines two years earlier than envisioned in the late 1990s. At the same time, China is deploying a road-deployable, SCUD-like ICBM-and-launcher system, which should be devilishly difficult to track. Once both the ballistic submarine and land ICBM systems are in place, China will finally have a credible nuclear response to the United States, with all the bizarre and paradoxical politics and diplomacy which comes with that.

China is still a ways off from even being able to handle aggression against it by a hostile power, let alone be able to project power in a dominationist way. Fears of potential "Chinese imperialism" beyond the borders of the PRC are off base.

Well, so much for professions of peace.