Posted on 03/14/2006 1:43:37 AM PST by Dyaus Pitar
Hong Kong: The Chinese military is currently planning to build an aircraft carrier, a pro-Beijing daily in Hong Kong reported Friday.
"The Chinese army will conduct research and build an aircraft carrier and develop our own aircraft carrier fleet," People’s Liberation Army Lt. Gen. Wang Zhiyuan was quoted as saying in the Chinese-language Wen Wei Po.
"An aircraft carrier is a very important tool for big countries defending their interests in the sea. China is a big country with a long shoreline. An aircraft carrier is necessary to defend our interests in the sea," he said.
It would be China's first aircraft carrier and would likely be deployed to join other warships currently in the South China Sea, the newspaper said.
(Excerpt) Read more at india-defence.com ...
There is China's problem. The army is in charge of the navy. They have to straighten that out.
They have been talking about the mythical Chinese aircraft carrier for years now. Anything they build will be a joke. A lot of fun to watch and a nice target for our SSNs, but not a threat.
Chances are it will be a variation of the Gorshkov design India has bought from Russia. Silly thing.
Man you have a really short view of history. Does it stop for you at about 50 years ago? Military advancement is as old as civilization and even older than that.
The Chiense were the world's technological leader 1000 years ago and have the brains to get back there at some point in the not-too-distant future.
There is no immediate threat from China, but the reality is that an aircraft carrier has didly squat to do with defending a coastline. It is meant purely and simply for projecting power far away from that coastline.
It also requires a massive investment and integration of naval power. One doesn't just build an aircraft carrier, one builds a carrier group. If this happens, it is the first step in China beginning to flex its international military muscle.
If it uses that muscle to assist America in policing the world, great. If it uses it to protect rogue regimes and interfere with the the global order that is not so good.
The Chinese are neither reckless nor impatient. They see America as just another empire that will eventually fade away. When you have 5000 years of history, 230 looks like blink of an eye.
,,, when, exactly, will the people be liberated?
chicom ping
I wouldn't worry too much about one aircraft carrier. That'll put China about on the current level of Thailand (well, except the Thais bought theirs from Spain). If the Chinese are gonna build a whole fleet, then we'll have plenty of time to see it coming and plan accordingly.
A frigate-navy, especially one with quiet diesel submarines and a multiplicity of surface vessels (including, now, Aegis-class missile boats) can defend its coasts exceedingly well, supported by land-based aircraft.
The only reason the ChiComs would build a carrier would be to project power abroad.
The only reason they'd announce their intention to build a carrier would be to intimidate in advance.
Maybe now. But what will be in 10 years? Besides - it is nothing new that the Chinese bought enough Russian Kilos with high-end European technology to blow all US-carriers out of the street of Taiwan. Their firepower is growing in a frightening speed. It could be the the pure masses of the Peoples Army that give them the weight and firepower to deal with everything in the far east. Including the US navy.
Come on, 'free-trade' zealots and idealogues...
China has earned a Navy, right?
C'mon, they're paying for it fair-and-square.
</sarc>
DUmmies!
ping
<< The Chiense (sic) were the world's technological leader 1000 years ago ... >>
Rubbish. They NEVER were.
You've been reading way too much of the absolutely cut from whole cloth "history" delusionally fantasized by Peking's present pack of self-annointed, self-appointed and self-perpetuating psychopaths and predators and its professional prevaricators.
Maybe. However, China doesn't have 5000 years of history. Or rather, their 5000 years of history is no better or worse than the 5000 years of history in Europe, India or the Middle East or even the Americas.
Just because there are people living there today and there were people living there 5000 years ago means nothing. What matters is how they are governed, for the amount of freedom that a people have is directly proportional to their prosperity.
So, what part of that 5000 years are you talking about? The part where "China" was a bunch of seperate states, each ruled by a warlord? Or the part where the Mongols came riding down, killed off the nobility and set themselves up as emperors? Or one of the many failed dynastic regimes that inevitably corrupted themselves out of existence?
You might as well say that Mexico has 5000 years of history because the Toltecs, Aztecs and Presidente Fox all live in the same area. Or call Illinois the center of the earth, because those mounds out in Cahokia and Governor Blagojevich are all part of the same culture.
The current incarnation of the government in what is today a single, large country called China is only about 60 years old.
They've yet to produce anything interesting or innovative. Their tanks, planes and ships are all Russian designed or built. Their nuclear arsenal and space program is all American (Thanks Bill!) designed.
China was once a great power, an intellectual incubator, a military giant.
Now they are just another failed Communist regime that has finally resorted to a pseudo-capitalist system in order to continue to finance their failed communist policies.
Think of it as a financial glasnost, but leaving the thugs in charge of the police apparatus.
So, let them crow that they'll be building a carrier fleet. It's not like they can actually do it. The best they'll be able to manage is buying a real carrier from someone else and maybe building a few ASW-size carriers.
Our sub drivers and naval aviation types love the idea.
As many a sub driver or naval aviation type had remarked about the Admiral Gorshkov, Kiev, Minsk, Novorossiysk and Kuznetsov...
"There's a Silver Star that hasn't been awarded yet."
not to mention their advances in astrology, weaponry, fine clothing, war tactics etc. The Chinese made ships that would embarrass anything the Western world was capable of making for centuries. Their political culture isn't particularly suited for a modern world, which is why they have done so poorly in the last few centuries, but as someone else said, these folks have been around as a cohesive society for thousands of years. A few hundred years of playing second fiddle to a Western upstart, such as the United States, is but a blip on their radar screen.
I am not convinced they have what it takes to challenge the United States in the future, politically and culturally, but the US isn't necessarily maintaining any of the political values that made us great (federalism, constitutionalism, individualism, liberalism in its classic sense, etc.) If you just look at how our leaders, the media, and our political cousins, the Europeans, have responded to Islamic bullying over the cartoon incident, I wouldn't say we're necessarily beaming with confidence over our own values as a culture.
And it is said, those who have no confidence in their culture, have no reason to defend it.
I meant masses of ships and boats. Anyway the Red Chinese are crazy enough to close the strait of Taiwan with that much corpses that you can walk over.
The modern world is replete with examples of overseas Chinese who became economically wealthy and even dominant within a generation or two once they were in an environment which allowed economic freedom. Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia are all countries which were backward in the 1950's and relatively prosperous today thanks to a Chinese entrepreneural class.
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