By L.C. Russell Hsiao
CHANGXING SHIPBUILDING BASE: HOME FOR CHINA’S FUTURE INDIGENOUS AIRCRAFT CARRIER?
Recent reports circulating in the Chinese press indicate that Jiangnan Shipyard (Group) Company Limited—one of China’s oldest state-owned shipbuilding company regarded as the “cradle of China’s national [shipbuilding] industry”—could be slated by Beijing to carry out the Chinese military’s long-standing mission to build an indigenous aircraft carrier. This information, checked against various reports that appeared in the Chinese press, indicates that the recently enhanced Changxing Shipbuilding Base, which is located off the coast of Shanghai on Changxing Island, may be the location where China will build its indigenous carrier (China Review News, April 28).
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PLA’s “Absolute Loyalty” to the Party in Doubt
By Willy Lam
China’s military forces crossed a watershed when the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) celebrated its 60th birthday by holding a parade of state-of-the-art hardware such as indigenously developed nuclear submarines. That the 2.4-million strong People's Liberation Army (PLA) has attained quasi-superpower status was also supported by the fact that defense delegations from 29 countries attended the festivities in the port city of Qingdao (Guardian, April 22; Time [Asia edition], April 21). Paving the way for preparations for an even bigger event on October 1—an unprecedented large-scale military show at Tiananmen Square to mark the 60th birthday of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
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Beijing and Havana: Political Fraternity and Economic Patronage
By Yinghong Cheng
“History has proved that we [China and Cuba] are worthy of the name of fast friends, good comrades and intimate brothers,” commented Chinese President Hu Jintao on the state of Sino-Cuban bilateral relations during a visit with Cuban President Raul Castro in Havana on November 16-19, 2008 (China News Net, November 20, 2008). Hu's comments echoed Chairman Mao's incendiary rhetoric during a time of world revolution, and accentuated the notion that both China and Cuba still claim to be “communist.” Yet, since the late Patriarch Deng Xiaoping's economic policy of opening-up China, Beijing has departed from its Maoist socio-economic model and even further according to party stalwarts still loyal to Mao's teachings. Following Hu’s remarks, Raul chanted “The East Is Red,” a Chinese song popular during Mao’s time comparing the Chairman to the sun. Raul’s impromptu charade was widely reported in China and deeply touched the cords of various old and new Maoists and leftists.
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Impeccable Affair and Renewed Rivalry in the South China Sea
By Ian Storey
Developments in the South China Sea during the first quarter of 2009 reinforced several trends that have been apparent over the past two years. First, the Spratly Islands dispute has once again come to dominate Sino-Philippine relations, despite attempts by Beijing and Manila to move beyond it. Second, China has adopted a more assertive posture toward its territorial and maritime boundary claims in the South China Sea than at any time since the late 1990s. Third, the 2002 breakthrough agreement between the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China to manage tensions in the South China Sea is in danger of becoming irrelevant. Fourth, the USNS Impeccable incident on March 8 highlighted the growing strategic importance of the South China Sea for the United States and China, and reawakened concerns in ASEAN capitals that the region may one day become the principal theater wherein Sino-U.S. maritime rivalry is played out.
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Maritime Confrontation Highlights Troubled State of China-U.S. Defense Diplomacy
By Richard Weitz
The recriminations that flared between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the United States over the latest Sino-American maritime confrontation makes evident how little progress has been made in Sino-U.S. defense dialogue during the past two decades. Clashes between U.S. and Chinese military units operating in the sea and air near China have become a recurring disruption in the bilateral relations. They will burden the Obama administration as it seeks to develop Sino-American security relations in the coming years.
By Richard Weitz
The recriminations that flared between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the United States over the latest Sino-American maritime confrontation makes evident how little progress has been made in Sino-U.S. defense dialogue during the past two decades. Clashes between U.S. and Chinese military units operating in the sea and air near China have become a recurring disruption in the bilateral relations. They will burden the Obama administration as it seeks to develop Sino-American security relations in the coming years.
