China shifts military strategy, focusing on greater naval power
BEIJING — China intends to project naval power in the open ocean in coming years, and not just defend the country’s coastal waters, according to a strategy paper released Tuesday.
The paper, the first policy document issued by the Chinese military in two years, comes at a time of growing Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea. China’s efforts to enforce its disputed claims to vast stretches of the sea by building up artificial islands and structures on reefs and outcroppings have drawn the Philippines and its ally, the United States, into a test of wills in the region.
The dispute between Beijing and Washington escalated last week, when a U.S. military surveillance plane flew near Fiery Cross Reef, a contested atoll in the Spratly Islands that has been the site of frenetic dredging work in recent months. Chinese forces repeatedly ordered the U.S. plane to leave the area, and a Foreign Ministry spokesman later called the flight “irresponsible and
dangerous.” The Pentagon earlier this month said it was weighing whether to send warships and aircraft into what it says are international waters but that China says are within its zone of control.
On Tuesday, in an act of defiance likely to further inflame tensions in the region, China’s state media announced that construction work had begun on two lighthouses in the Spratlys, adding to a growing array of Chinese-built structures that have been identified in satellite photos, including radar facilities and a runway capable of handling military aircraft.
The policy document, released Tuesday by the State Council, lays out China’s military ambitions, referred to as “national rejuvenation,” as Beijing moves to counter what it sees as U.S. efforts to contain its rise. It extends beyond naval policy to emphasize continued modernization of the Chinese military in general, and it describes cyberwarfare as a “grave security threat” that requires development of a cyber-military force. But Western analysts said the document’s emphasis on improving naval capabilities and projecting force far from China’s coastline was the most striking facet of the paper.
Dennis J. Blasko, an Asia analyst at CNA Corporation who studies China’s armed forces, said the paper formally enunciates a transformation that the military has been going through for some time, and that has gained pace in recent years — “… the trends toward a greater maritime force, a stronger air force and improved missile forces.”
Although the paper mentions the U.S. in passing, it leaves little doubt about whom it perceives as an opponent, blaming “some external countries” for “meddling in South China Sea affairs.”
Analysts said events elsewhere have also prompted Chinese leaders to abandon long-held policies that discouraged overseas military engagement.
In 2008, during the height of Somali piracy in the Gulf of Aden, China sent two destroyers and a supply ship to the region, the first time it had dispatched battle-ready warships beyond the Pacific. In April, it sent three naval vessels to Yemen, where it evacuated hundreds of people from the conflict-torn country.