Command & Control

China displays navy strength in parade

By Alice Kok | 24 April 2009

China has put on an unprecedented display of its maritime strength in a parade of warships and nuclear submarines. The nuclear-powered submarines were making their first appearance in front of the public during today’s (23 April 2009) event to mark 60 years since the founding of the People’s Liberation Army Navy.

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The naval show in the eastern city of Qingdao also displayed 21 foreign vessels from 14 other nations, including the United States and Japan. The parade is only the fourth to take place since 1949 and the first on such a large and international scale.

China said the joint naval parade was an attempt to promote understanding about its military development. Ding Yiping, Deputy Commander of the navy, says: “Suspicions about China being a threat to world security is mostly because of … a lack of understanding about China.”

“Showing the country’s military strength is also popular with the public,” Shi Yinhong, Professor of international Telations at Renmin University in Beijing, said. “This parade is also meant to consolidate domestic support for greater spending on the navy.”

China recently sent naval ships to the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Somalia, for an anti-piracy mission, marking the navy’s first potential combat mission beyond its territorial waters.

Admiral Wu Shengli, the navy’s Commander-in-Chief, said earlier this month that China would develop a new generation of warships and aircraft to boost the military’s capabilities over a wider geographical range.

The Chinese navy is now “the first navy in Asia” in terms of tonnage, according to Jean-Pierre Cabestan, Professor of Political Science at Hong Kong Baptist University. Says Cabestan of the parade: “It’s a show of force and of power.”

“It’s a public relations display with a double message— China as an integrator, showing it is keeping with the rules of the international game, but also showing it is now in the big power arena.”