China enters new waters with pirate mission
Posted: Friday, December 26, 2008 12:21 PM
By Eric Baculinao
NBC News Beijing bureau chief
Three Chinese navy ships set sail today to join the international fight against pirates off the coast of Somalia, marking a defining moment in China's efforts to project its force and gain a greater role in maintaining global peace and security.
But the deployment is also triggering concerns that China may be slowly giving up the long-standing "lie-low" strategy that Deng Xiaoping had espoused to guide China's diplomatic and security strategy.
The task force — consisting of two missile-armed destroyers and one supply ship — is China's first significant long-range naval combat mission since the 15th century Ming dynasty period, according to observers.
"It's the first time we go abroad to protect our strategic interests armed with military force," said Wu Shengli, commander of the Chinese Navy, at a ceremony to see off the approximately 1,000 sailors, according to Xinhua news agency.
"It is a huge breakthrough in China's concepts about security," Li Wei, director of the anti-terrorism research center at the China Institute of Contemporary Relations, told China Daily.
Deng's 24-character strategy
The mission — will provide armed escort to Chinese merchant vessels as well as foreign ships that seek protection against pirates — is seen by experts as symbolic of China's growing self-confidence and rising global status, which brings into question the continued validity of Deng's previous ideas on strategy.
In the early 1990s, Deng propounded a so-called 24-character strategy, a succinct guide for the conduct of China's diplomatic and military affairs, which essentially shunned unnecessary international entanglements or provocations. "Observe calmly, secure our position, hide our capacities and bide our time, be good at maintaining a low profile and never take the lead," were the key elements of Deng's strategic dictum.
However, according to Professor Yan Xuetong, director of International Studies Institute at Tsinghua University, times are changing.
"There is no issue here of going against Deng's lie-low policy of the '90s because at that time we had very little businesses and interests abroad, we mainly attracted businesses and investments into China," he said.
"But now China has expanding economic interactions with the world, and we have to adopt the necessary means to deter the illegal attacks on China's growing interests and businesses abroad," he added, citing the pirates' increasing attacks on Chinese merchant ships.
"We are entering a new stage in China's foreign policy reflecting the new stage in our development and relations with the world," he added.
For Professor Zhu Feng, director of International Security Program at Peking Univesity, China's anti-piracy flotilla is more a "symbolic" projection of force, credible enough for purposes of patrolling.
"Technically speaking, it is not a very substantial display of power, essentially a gesture that China's navy is ready for some international exposure and capable of making contributions to international peacekeeping mission," he said. "This doesn't necessarily mean giving up Deng's strategy on foreign policy."
Growing power but no 'China threat'
Professor Yan argues that China's naval deployment is sign that China's military capability is undergoing a "strong momentum of development" but that there is no basis for concern that China is a growing military threat.
"Whether China will be a threat or not should be judged not on the basis of its capability but on the basis of its policy," he said. "The U.S. has vastly superior military and naval capability but nobody talks of an 'America threat'."
Yan cited the 1999 NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade as a turning point in China's military modernization. "But the speed and efficiency of China's military modernization are moderate to low, compared to the U.S., so the gap between the two is not getting narrower," he said.
For Professor Zhu Feng, China's decision shows China's "growing importance and growing self-confidence" in world affairs.
"For deploying the navy ships, China has done its cost-benefit calculation and the conclusion was that it would benefit China's image and interests," he said.
"It won't be cheap," he added.
The Chinese naval mission will last for three months, after which replacement will be decided based on the conditions then. Its final diplomatic and security impact still remains to be seen.
