August 19, 2007: The enthusiasm in China for
building a larger navy is not aimed at the United States, but at the enormous,
and growing, vulnerability of its maritime commerce. For example, over 80 percent
of the oil China imports comes through the Straits of Malacca. This is the
busiest waterway in the world (about 130 ships a day). Other nations have an
interest in keeping these straights (which are the easiest way of moving
between the Indian and Pacific oceans) open. Japan and South Korea, for
example. Both, like China, move most of the oil, and much of their trade,
through those straights. The nations immediately adjacent to the straights
(Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia) conduct joint patrols to keep pirates and
terrorists under control. But if some other nation wanted to hurt China, all
they have to do is block those straights. You could do that by sinking large
ships in the narrowest parts of the
straights, or putting a superior naval force there.
China does not want to be dependent on another
nation, be it Japan, South Korea or the United States, for the safety of its
maritime commerce. The only way to avoid that humiliating fate is to become the
dominant regional naval power. While the Chinese see this as purely a matter of
self-defense, China's neighbors see it as an attempt to impose Chinese control
over "the eastern Sea" (the western Pacific, waters that China has historically
seen as its own). China is not concerned about any fears its neighbors might
have. The leadership in China is only concerned with the well-being of the
Chinese economy (which is necessary to keep the Communist Party in power). Thus
the determination to build a much larger navy.
