Hello sailor! Rival navies check one another out
Posted: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 11:19 AM
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Beijing, China
By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer
QINGDAO, China – As China prepares to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy on Thursday, its normally secretive military has taken the unprecedented step of showcasing some of its best vessels and naval weaponry.
On Wednesday, sailors from China and 14 other countries with naval ships participating in the international fleet review off the coast of Qingdao – including the United States – took turns visiting one another’s vessels.
Amid the clicks of digital cameras, one could almost imagine there were no such things as territorial disputes.
‘Nice lines’
Chinese sailors – and there were many from the quarter-million strong naval force – could be found everywhere, eagerly taking photos in front of the visiting ships.
We stopped to chat with a group of Chinese navy officers photographing one another next to the Russian navy’s 11,370-ton Vayag missile cruiser.
"Which foreign ship have you liked the most?"
"The Korean one has nice lines!" enthused one Chinese officer. "It’s very advanced," added another.
In fact, South Korea’s 18,000-ton Dokdo – a landing helicopter platform assault ship – outsized all the other vessels at the fleet review.
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| Adrienne Mong/NBC News |
| Foreign naval officers visit a Chinese submarine in Qingdao. |
And it attracted huge crowds of civilian Chinese. "Slowly, slowly!" A Korean sailor shouted into his megaphone, trying to calm the packs of Chinese families scrambling onto the gangplank to explore the ship.
"It’s very big," said a shy young Chinese woman who had just disembarked from the Dokdo. When I asked her whether she’d been on any Chinese ships, she nodded and then laughed, "But they’re not as big as this!"
We chanced upon the Commander of the U.S. 7th Fleet, Vice Adm. John Bird, who had just emerged from a Chinese submarine. "It’s the second time I’ve been on one of these," he drawled. "The first time was just a couple of days ago."
"Impressions?" I asked.
"It’s very clean," he replied.
The submarine Bird visited was a regular diesel-powered vessel, but on Thursday China will publicly display for the first time ever its nuclear submarines – among the most powerful in its fleet.
In front of Pakistan’s missile destroyer PNS Badr, a Pakistani sailor posed for the camera with a Chinese toddler in each arm.
Nearby at the USS Fitzgerald, a U.S. Navy missile destroyer from the 7th Fleet, events were organized in a very American way. A raucous performance of "Carry on Wayward Son," performed by the 7th Fleet’s Orient Express band – who flew in specially Japan – greeted Chinese sailors waiting patiently to board the destroyer.
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| Adrienne Mong/NBC News |
| A Chinese sailor poses in front of the Pakistan missile destroyer PNS Badr. |
Politics and fun
But it wasn’t long before politics did come into play – even if in jest.
An American sailor bounded over, impishly, "Have you been to the Russian ship? We heard they needed to get towed in."
Another time, I approached a couple of Pakistani sailors, "Have you been to the Indian ship?"
"Pakistan," they answered, pointing at themselves.
"Yes, I know. You’re from Pakistan," I replied. "But have you visited the Indian ship?"
"No, Pakistan," they chorused again.
UPDATE: Adrienne Mong Twittered from China's international naval review in honor of the 60th anniversary of the People's Libertation Army Navy on Thursday. Click here to read her Twitter updates.
