What are Chinese Navy's strategies?

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A PLAN training session aboard the Wuhan, a Type 052B Luyang I destroyer, while en route for the Gulf of Aden in December 2008.


The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has in 2010 taken part in numerous exercises, experimented with long-range force projection and represented China abroad in a number of diplomatic visits. This heightened level of activity results from an ambitious naval strategy which seeks to secure China's access to energy resources and to give it more diplomatic leverage in territorial disputes with its neighbours.


As the Chinese leadership has shifted military investment towards the PLAN, it has been able to draw on a military-industrial base and research and development capabilities that have gained maturity through two decades of reform and military modernisation. The current maritime strategy has three main elements: military exercises designed for training purposes as well as to act as a deterrent; longer-range power-projection experiments; and military diplomacy in the form of port calls and bilateral cooperation.


Military exercises


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The Kunlun Shan, a 17,000-tonne Type 071 Yuzhao-class landing platform dock and the largest vessel in the PLAN's fleet.


In 2010, Chinese naval and coastal-defence exercises have been unusually intense and numerous. Moving away from the heavily scripted affairs of the past, the emphasis has been on 'real-life' combat situations. Focusing on littoral defence, rapid mobilisation, command-and-control flexibility and longer-range projection, the exercises have been highly significant for the development of the PLAN.


Amid tensions in the South China Sea, this long-range combined-arms exercise sent a clear message of deterrence to China's neighbours. It displayed China's abilities and willingness to project its naval power to the South China Sea in a flexible and comprehensive manner.


Long-range deployments


Though China has been an active participant in United Nations peacekeeping operations, its contributions have mostly been limited to non-combat troops. However, since December 2008 it has deployed naval vessels to the multinational anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden. The PLA terms these 'military operations other than war', and sees them as an opportunity to train officers and test equipment.


The navy has gained experience from the deployment and has surmounted significant logistical problems. The first flotilla suffered from a shortage of fresh food because it did not have a supply port.Chinese vessels now put in at ports such as Djibouti, Salalah in Oman and Aden in Yemen.


Military diplomacy

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Force Commander of EU NAVFOR Commodore Pieter Bindt and Commander of Task Force 529 Rear Admiral Wang Zhiguo meet on board the HNLMS Evertsen in the Gulf of Aden, November 2009.


As Beijing recognises that its efforts to strengthen deterrence and demonstrate its ability to project force may be viewed with concern by its neighbours, the third part of China's maritime strategy consists of military diplomacy. The aim of Beijing's diplomatic programme is to establish bilateral and multilateral relationships in the Asia-Pacific and beyond, as well as to de-escalate territorial disputes with its neighbours and restrain any tendency they might have to strengthen military ties with the US.  


As the most flexible and outwardly focused arm of the PLA, the PLAN has proved a useful tool with which to demonstrate China's soft power. After completing its counter-piracy duty, the missile destroyer Guangzhou was sent through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean to conduct port calls in Egypt, Greece and Italy. It later visited Myanmar and rounded off its diplomatic voyage with a port call at Singapore.


The effectiveness of these attempts at military diplomacy remains to be seen. 'Friendly places' where Chinese ships can resupply have been established. Military diplomacy has worked well in places where goodwill gestures have been followed up with hard currency.  


Future strategy


Though China remains a long way from the fully fledged blue-water navy that it plans to create by 2050, naval developments are likely to be at the forefront of its foreign and defence policy for at least the next decade. Beijing is likely to use its growing naval capabilities to shore up its claims to its territoral islands in the East China Sea and the South China Sea. In terms of diplomacy, China's naval strategy has achieved limited but nonetheless tangible results. Overall, the scope of the PLAN's activities this year demonstrates how its confidence has grown in tandem with its operational experience.   (From IISS)


Will these strategies enable the Chinese Navy to be a blue-water navy?