China Airs Ambitions To Beef Up Naval Power
The Chinese president, Hu Jintao, has called on top military commanders to build a powerful navy, the state media reported Thursday as China continues to spend heavily on a modern, blue-water fleet.

In a speech to navy officers attending a Communist Party meeting Wednesday, Hu said China was an important maritime nation and the navy should be ready to protect the country's interests "at any time," according to reports of his comments carried on the front pages of major newspapers.

"We should endeavor to build a powerful people's navy that can adapt to its historical mission during a new century and a new period," Hu was quoted as saying, accompanied by photographs of him wearing military style green. "In the process of protecting the nation's authority and security and maintaining our maritime rights, the navy's role is very important. It is a glorious task."

Hu is also chairman of the Central Military Commission, which makes him commander-in-chief of China's armed forces.

Hu's call for a strong navy is further evidence that the mainland's top military planners believe this will help safeguard what China sees as its sovereignty over Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing regards as a renegade province, and counter the growing naval power of other Asian countries, including Japan and India.

His comments also reinforce the views of senior Chinese military officers who argue that China needs a navy that can deploy far from the country's coastline to protect its huge maritime, trade including crucial imports of oil and raw materials.

"There is a certain inevitability about China's rise as a major maritime power," said Sam Bateman, a maritime security expert at Singapore's Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies. "The threats that China faces these days are largely maritime threats."

Hu's speech also suggested that as a civilian and career Communist Party official, he was continuing efforts to consolidate his leadership over the country's 2.3 million-strong military. In the early decades of Communist rule, China's navy was little more than a coastal defense force with obsolete ships and weapons.

But, after double-digit increases in annual defense outlays over much of the past 15 years, most analysts believe China is on track to become a major naval power.

Over that period, Beijing has spent heavily on potent surface ships, submarines and weapons from Russia.

And, it has continued to use its booming commercial shipbuilding industry as a springboard for developing homegrown warship designs.

Naval analysts believe a top priority for China's navy is to counter any U.S. intervention in the event of conflict between the mainland and Taiwan.

Although China still lags far behind the United States in overall naval power, experts say that Beijing's military planners are attempting to build a navy that could dominate a limited area around Taiwan for a long enough period, while its other forces overwhelmed the island's defenses.

China has a fleet of more than 50 submarines, including modern Russian and domestic designs, that could pose a major threat to U.S. aircraft-carrier battle groups.

These submarines are armed with advanced Russian torpedoes and anti- ship missiles.

The Chinese Navy also has more than 20 major surface warships in its fleet.

China remains relatively backward in naval aviation, particularly in comparison to the United States, which has 11 aircraft-carrier battle groups.

But in any conflict over Taiwan this would be at least partly offset by China's land-based strike aircraft, which could operate over the nearby island and surrounding waters.

In the longer term, some experts believe that China will add aircraft carriers to its fleet to protect its merchant shipping on distant sea lanes.

While the Chinese government has continued to boost defense spending, there is evidence that Hu is attempting to increase accountability and fight corruption in the ranks as he consolidates his grip over the military.

In September, the Central Military Commission took the unusual step of publicly announcing the punishment of senior air force officers held responsible for the June crash of a military transport aircraft that killed all 40 personnel on board.