Opinion Second Carrier

“Such reports are inaccurate,” a spokesman for China’s ministry of defence said two days after the PLA Navy inducted the Liaoning. “We will take into consideration national economic development,the needs of national defence and military construction when we make further plans for our carriers,” the spokesman added.

The denial,however,is misleading. The Global Times newspaper,known for its nationalist views,pointed out that the spokesman did not say which part of the report on the second carrier was untrue. “People can assume that China is building follow-up carriers,but only the second one will not be launched later this year,or it will not be built in Shanghai,” the Times concluded.

Most of China’s neighbours in Asia,including India,will rightly assume that Beijing’s quest for naval plans includes the construction of more than one additional carrier.

On the question of the development of a carrier battle group,the spokesman of the defence ministry said the navy is carefully studying the concept.

Political Logic

The Chinese Communist Party newspaper,the People’s Daily,laid out last week with great clarity the strategic rationale behind China’s carrier development.

First,according the Daily,“the Liaoning reflects China’s comprehensive national strength,enhances the sense of national pride and promotes people’s awareness of maritime rights and interest [in it.”

Second,“it raises the level of China’s naval combat power,facilitates national defence modernisation and motivates the development of technology and capability-building in [the defence industry”,the Daily said.

Third,the carrier “diversifies the means of safeguarding national sovereignty,security and development.” Last but not least,“the first aircraft carrier in active service is conducive to strengthening maritime cooperation,dealing with non-traditional security threats and contributing to world peace and common development,” the Daily’s editorial insisted.

The Daily has no difficulty in recognising that the carrier will add to the perception of a growing threat from a rising China,but there “is no need to take it seriously”.

“We should create a favourable international environment for China’s long-term development by adhering to defensive military strategy and the road of peaceful development,as well as firmly defending its legitimate interests,” the paper argued.

Great Sea Wall?

The commissioning of the Liaoning,many military experts suggest,marks a crucial step for China in shifting from the traditional emphasis on land power to a new focus on sea power.

Historically,all major threats to Beijing’s national security had come from land,especially from the “barbarians” who invaded China from the northwest.

The emperors in Beijing built the Great Wall of China to protect themselves against these land-based threats. Some analysts see the induction of the carrier as part of China’s effort to build a “Great Sea Wall” along its seaboard in the east.

China has long resented,the argument goes,the American naval dominance in the Western Pacific and Washington’s capacity to stop Beijing from integrating Taiwan with the mainland.

It is true that Beijing has its hands full dealing with the extraordinary naval might of the United States and the substantive maritime capabilities of Japan. China’s naval strategists are indeed determined to expand their room for manoeuvre in the Western Pacific against the US and its allies.

Besides the imperative of unifying Taiwan,China is locked in a large number of territorial disputes with its neighbours,including Japan,Vietnam and the Philippines.

These disputed waters are believed to contain substantive energy resources and add an economic dimension to the territorial disputes.

Not everyone agrees with the notion that China’s naval build-up is entirely defensive. The recent Chinese assertiveness in the Pacific,according to the second school,points to the offensive dimension of Beijing’s naval strategy.

As a rising power whose economy imports massive amounts of natural resources and exports industrial goods to markets around the world,China’s interests extend way beyond the Pacific. Securing its long sea lines of communication and projecting power into the Indian Ocean and beyond have become important objectives of China’s naval modernisation.

The writer is a distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation,Delhi and a contributing editor for ‘The Indian Express’