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China eyes global naval role after launch of new carrier

BEIJING — China needs to raise its military capabilities to protect its growing overseas interests, its Foreign Minister said following the launch of Beijing’s first domestically built aircraft carrier, while vowing not to pursue expansionism.

Chinese state-run tabloid Global Times said the launch of the new carrier represented a ‘milestone’ in military development. Photo: Reuters

Chinese state-run tabloid Global Times said the launch of the new carrier represented a ‘milestone’ in military development. Photo: Reuters

BEIJING — China needs to raise its military capabilities to protect its growing overseas interests, its Foreign Minister said following the launch of Beijing’s first domestically built aircraft carrier, while vowing not to pursue expansionism.

Speaking during a visit to Germany, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Chinese business and citizens had spread all around the world, with millions of people living overseas and 30,000 Chinese-funded businesses registered overseas.

“Under this new environment, China has ample reason to raise its own national defence capability to effectively protect its fair rights that are increasingly extending overseas,” Mr Wang said in a statement posted on the ministry’s website yesterday.

Beijing would maintain a “defensive” military policy and had “no intention to engage in any kind of expansion”, he added.

China launched the new carrier, temporarily named the Type 001A, on Wednesday amid rising tensions over North Korea and regional worries about Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea and its broader military modernisation programme.

Previous reports have said the 70,000-tonne vessel would probably be called the Shandong, after the eastern Chinese province. The vessel is expected to be operational sometime before 2020, after sea trials and the arrival of its full air complement.

Little has been revealed, however, about China’s domestic aircraft carrier programme, which is a state secret. China also does not give a spending breakdown for its defence budget.

But the government has said the new carrier’s design draws on experiences from its first carrier, the Liaoning, bought second-hand from Ukraine in 1998 and refitted in China.

The influential state-run tabloid, Global Times, said the launch represented a “milestone” in military development.

“Building a strong defence ... with a widespread global reach is now necessary to protect China’s businesses and the massive interests that arise from them,” the paper said in an editorial yesterday. “Having a domestically built aircraft carrier is also inspirational. China is taking concrete steps to be a first-rate power.”

Global Times has quoted experts as saying China needs at least six carriers, and a corresponding number of overseas bases to support them.

That will leave Beijing well short of being able to challenge the United States, which operates 10 carriers and plans to build two more, and has decades of experience operating them.

Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun would not say how many more carriers China wanted to build, only that future developments could give “overall consideration” to various factors. Asked if China wanted overseas bases to support its carriers, Mr Yang added: “I think this is overthinking things”. He did not elaborate.

China is believed to be planning to build at least two and possibly as many as four additional carriers, with one of them, the Type 002, reported to be already under construction. They are expected to be closer in size and capabilities to America’s nuclear-powered 100,000-tonne Nimitz- and Ford-class ships, with flat flight decks and catapults to allow planes to launch, and more ordnance and fuel aboard.

Both Western and Asian naval officers are closely watching the development of the Type 001A, particularly for any advances in being able to properly defend the carrier against rival ships and submarines.

President Xi Jinping’s “One Belt, One Road” infrastructure plan to forge enhanced trade corridors linking Europe and Africa with Central Asia, and China further underscores the long-held blue-water ambitions of his naval strategists.

China’s navy has also been adopting a more prominent role in recent months, with a rising-star admiral taking command, its first aircraft carrier, Liaoning, sailing around self-ruled Taiwan, and new warships appearing in far-flung places. AGENCIES

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