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| (PLA Navy Frigate Yueyang. | ) |
Hereunder article from Daniel Lang tells of an interesting topic about the strategic
plan of the Chinese government to expand its military clout worldwide. China's
People's Liberation Army (Navy) is going global. With its adventurous
island-grabbing in West Philippine Sea, PLA (N) is now making its presence in
Africa.
So,
from constructing an airstrip on a reclaimed area in Spratly Islands, the Chinese
is now building a navy installation about four miles from Camp Lemonnier--United
States' military base of Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa.
In
my book The Zhongguo Orchestra, I have discussed China's long-term objective of
displacing the United States as the primary global power; and with the
PLA increasing its military budget and expanding its armed forces, the Chinese
keep the American military planners in Pentagon glued on their drawing tables as they strategize to counter the looming threat from Beijing.
Below
is Lang's article.
For
most of its recent history, China has largely been a land power with no
significant naval capabilities. They haven’t been able to exert much military
influence beyond their coastline for hundreds of years. In fact, one of the reasons
why Western powers had no trouble bullying China during the 19th and 20th
centuries, was because the Imperial Navy under the Qing dynasty was incredibly
weak. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that lately, China has been putting a
lot of effort into building an effective overseas naval force.
Not
only have they been busy constructing their first combat-ready aircraft carrier,
the Chinese have also been developing new aircrafts to accompany it. Of course,
a navy can’t really exert much military influence if it doesn’t have soldiers
to deploy. That’s why Chinese officials have recently announced that they are
preparing to rapidly expand the ranks of the
People’s Liberation Army Marine Corps.
Chinese media is reporting the People’s Liberation
Army’s ambitious new plans following the announcement of a 7 per cent increase
to $AU200 billion in defence spending last week. Among the details to emerge is
a move to boost China’s marine corps — highly trained and well equipped troops
intended for rapid deployment and offensive missions launched from the sea —
from an existing 20,000 troops to more than 100,000.
Chinese officials have stated this is to
protect arterial maritime trade routes and enforce its growing overseas
interests.
“What growing overseas interests” you
might ask? Well, China has been in the process of building their first overseas
military base in Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa. And that base is expected to be completed this summer.
Marine Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, commander
of AfriCom, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he expected the
Chinese base on the Horn of Africa to be operational later this summer. Without
getting specific, Waldhauser said he recently met with Djibouti’s President
Ismail Omar Guelleh “and expressed our concerns about some of the things that
are important to us about what the Chinese should not do at that location.”
The Chinese base would be about four
miles from the U.S. base at Camp Lemonnier, one of the Pentagon’s largest and
most important foreign military installations, where about 3,000 U.S. military
personnel and contractors are assigned to Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa.
Given that base’s close proximity to
Camp Lemonnier, China’s intentions are obvious. They want what the United
States has, which is a vast overseas empire, and an expeditionary force that
can reach any coastline in the world. They want to compete with our current
role in the global theater. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough room in the world
for two countries carrying out that role. We may very well be witnessing the
first stages of a new conflict between the United States and China.
(Authored
by Daniel Lang, Beijing Goes Global: China to Expand
Marine Force by 400%; First Overseas Military Base Almost Complete, March
17, 2017. From SHTFplan.com)
