China is stirring: why now?

China sees this and asks itself: “If we ever need to take back Taiwan by force, we might best do this when the US Navy Aircraft carriers are days or weeks away.”

We didn’t make this question up. It was a gift to us from a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Admiral.

China is no match for the US Navy, certainly. But a number of advanced warships will gradually come into service in the PLAN in the next few years. The bulk of these ships will belong to two new guided missile destroyer classes called 052B and 052C. The 052C will be fitted with an advanced integrated air defence system, supposedly similar to the US Aegis phased-array radar display, with a high capability to engage multiple targets simultaneously.

China’s surface fleet presently consists of 64 large combatant units: 21 destroyers and 43 frigates. Chinese navy planners are facing the demanding task of replacing obsolete ships with more modern and capable units.

To speed this process, PLAN continues to bring into service units of the Russian Sovremenny-class destroyers, while pursuing the construction of its own type 052B and 052C-class warships.

China also is pursuing the construction of a completely new ship that is expected to be very large and loaded with heavy surface armament. The first ship of this series is being built in China’s Dalian shipyard.

Beijing is apparently not yet attempting to build an aircraft carrier. At the moment, the creation of an extensive ship-borne air force by building and China’s submarine fleet consists of 57 units: 51 diesel submarines (SS) and six nuclear powered attack submarines (SSN).

China currently has one new Type 094 nuclear powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) of the Xia-class but construction of the series has been slow and laborious.

Regional crisis and the protection of sea lines of communication

The naval construction plan as a whole indicates that the duties that PLAN will be called upon to tackle in the next few years will be the protection of sea lines of communication to keep open the “choke points” relevant to China’s trade flow, and power projection in areas identified as vital for China’s national interests.

US seen often as “easy mark”

The Associated press reported last week that State Metal Industries, a Camden, New Jersey, company convicted in June of violating export laws over a shipment of AIM-7 Sparrow missile guidance parts it bought from Pentagon surplus in 2003 and sold to an entity partly owned by the Chinese government.

The company pleaded guilty to an export violation, was fined $250,000 and placed on probation for three years. Customs and Border Protection inspectors seized the parts - nearly 200 pieces of the guidance system for the Sparrow missile system - while inspecting cargo at a New Jersey port.

The company was only ordered to pay a fine of a few thousand dollars.