China's Navy Mulls Push Into Arabian Sea

China's navy mulls push into Arabian Sea

www.upi.com

A Chinese admiral's proposal to build a naval base in the Gulf of Aden, ostensibly to supports Beijing's anti-piracy flotilla off Somalia, has alarm bells ringing in the region.

China's growing naval encroachment in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean to protect its Middle Eastern oil supplies threatens eventual conflict with India, its longtime rival and Asia's other economic titan that is also flexing its muscles in its regional quest for oil.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 31 Dec 09 by Gools]

This is a very interesting article with lots of tidbits of information many people not paying particular attention may have missed.

For example did you know:

The Chinese navy joined the international operation against the Somali pirates a year ago with a couple of warships and a supply ship.

It was the first long-range projection of Chinese naval power in the region in 600 years...

I'd heard a few years ago that China was going to build a "real" "blue water navy" for the first time.

Chinese warships have been using a French naval base at Djibouti for resupply.

I wonder what the French are getting out of the deal.

... Beijing has been setting up bases across the Indian Ocean in competition with India for some time.

As the world's largest importer of crude oil, China is reportedly interested in establishing naval bases in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar, Pakistan and Thailand to protect its increasingly important maritime supply routes from the Middle East and Africa.

Who can blame them for wanting to protect their trade routes.

"Beijing is pursuing a two-pronged strategy to secure its energy, using the navy to protect maritime supply and building new pipelines," according to Jane's Intelligence Review.

China is building a major deepwater port on the Arabian Sea at Gwadar in Pakistan that could become a key naval base for China's expanding submarine fleet.

China is now mulling the acquisition of aircraft carriers to bolster power projection in the Arabian Sea. It recently unveiled its first nuclear submarines capable of long-distance operations.

China's been doing a lot more than that to secure energy resources and geopolitical gains (not counting economic moves) and they've been at it for years. For example here's just a few of the threads I've found in my repertoire:

China a Leader in Scramble for Oil

China Rocks the Geopolitical Boat!

China keeps rocking the geopolitical boat

China Shifts to Euros for Iranian Oil

Russia, China Sign Four Billion dollars of Trade Deals

Is China Quietly Dumping US Treasuries?

Canada Signs Energy Deals with China

And it goes on and on with many more deals and strategic moves to be found over the last ten years.

One has to admire such strategic planning and especially implementation while "the west" gets bogged down with political correctness, mindless infotainment and corruption of our political processes for short term corporate gains.
.

www.upi.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by Gools


Admire them? Isn't this something similar to the U.S. at the turn of the 20th century when we needed bases and to refuel when sending ships afar? Sounds like imperialism but Chinese style.

Is this implying that China is getting ready for war or peak oil?

One has to wonder what the Powers That Be were thinking when they decided to help transform China from a mostly rural agrarian society into a mechanized manufacturing one.

Surely they must have realized in awarding all those contracts that they would be enslaving China to an increasing dependence on oil to keep its newly modernized infrastructure humming along.

Did they do it for the power because so much of the world’s oil is controlled by the Western Oligarchs or did they do it just to temp fate and to force China into becoming a confrontational competitor by necessity that would ultimately have to vie violently for it’s needed share of these of these resources to force its hand prematurely?

One thing is for certain what ever China is transforming into we can thank the good folks at Wal-Mart for that and the not so intelligent people who shop there!

reply to post by Gools


Well they've come a long way in a short time. 8 or so years ago they still had 4 warships built between 1920-1933 in service! Hopefully they still suck at flying fighters and Seamanship because it's pretty clear they're chomping at the bit to take our place.