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Chinese navy visits London in show of power and persuasion
Beijing keen to boost co-operation as its ships expand strategic reach
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Chinese rear admiral Wang Zhongcai, left, shakes hands with his British counterpart Alex Burton on Wednesday © Xinhua/PA Images
October 4, 2017
by
James Kynge
Two Chinese warships visited London this week for the first time — and threw a party. Their air defence missiles, anti-submarine rockets and banks of radar may have looked menacing but this was hard power wrapped in cotton wool.
On deck the speeches were as sweet as the pyramids of moon cakes laid out on tables for guests. Wang Zhongcai, the rear admiral commanding the two frigates, evoked the “warm and bewitching banks of the river Thames” and paid tribute to the masterpieces of William Shakespeare, Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin.
There was no reference to the UK’s bouts of 19th century “gunboat diplomacy”, which for Beijing remain livid humiliations. Neither was there any mention in official remarks of several areas of strategic friction between the two countries.
For Beijing, the aim of the soirée was clear: “[UK admiral Horatio] Nelson said that England expects that every man will do his duty,” Liu Xiaoming, Chinese ambassador to the UK, said in a speech. “Chinese and UK military forces must work together closely. It is our shared responsibility to safeguard world peace and stability.”
The UK’s membership of the US-led Nato ensures that bilateral military ties — notwithstanding the warm rhetoric at the party — range from hesitant to frosty. Beijing regards Nato as a cold war relic and still believes that its bombing of the Chinese embassy in former Yugoslavia in 1999, in which three Chinese staff died, was intentional.
From Nato’s perspective, Beijing remains an object of suspicion in spite of tentative recent moves to build trust. China’s large-scale military exercise this year with Russia in the Baltic Sea — a potential flashpoint in Nato’s rivalry with Russia — was viewed with alarm in Washington.
I think the bigger game is about China continuing to test out its role and path as a major power. This sort of diplomacy builds relations and normalises China as a global security actor
Raffaello Pantucci, Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies
Nevertheless, China sees room to build bilateral relations with Nato members in Europe on the basis of anti-piracy and disaster relief operations, Mr Liu said. The 26th Task Group led by Admiral Wang had just returned from anti-piracy operations in seas off Somalia during which it shared information with the Royal Navy and other Nato members.
Over the course of a four-month deployment, the group escorted 65 Chinese and foreign vessels and apprehended three suspected pirate ships, Mr Liu said. This brought the total number of Chinese and foreign merchant ships escorted by the Chinese navy in the Gulf of Aden region to more than 1,000, he added.
“The Chinese navy fleet . . . are widely regarded as providing a trustworthy umbrella for the merchant navy worldwide,” Mr Liu added.
It is clear, though, that China hopes its military ties with the UK will evolve. Asked about future joint UK-China operations, Admiral Wang said: “There is absolutely the potential for large-scale joint military exercises between China and the UK.”
Military analysts said several factors are motivating China’s strategic outreach. With the second-largest — and fastest growing — navy in the world, Beijing needs to forge warmer ties to facilitate the port calls its vessels require as they take on a more global role.
“I think the bigger game is about China continuing to test out its role and path as a major power,” said Raffaello Pantucci, director at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in London. “This sort of diplomacy builds relations and normalises China as a global security actor.”
Two Chinese navy ships at West India Dock, east London, this week © Claire Doherty/Sipa/PA
The trauma of having to evacuate more than 30,000 Chinese from Libya as war engulfed that country in 2011 reinforced the need for a naval presence in Europe. At that time, China found itself at the mercy of Greece and Malta to supply ships with which to rescue its citizens.
Some analysts think, however, that China’s naval embrace may conceal a more divisive intent. As the strategic rivalry between Beijing and Washington intensifies in the South China Sea and other arenas, China may seek to sow disunity into the western military alliance where it can, analysts said.
“On whether this is an attempt to pull the transatlantic alliance apart, I think this is something the Chinese are constantly trying to explore but they get the point that with the British this is slightly pointless,” said Mr Pantucci.
In any case, the historical roots of UK-China military ties are hardly conducive. Standing near a red banner reading “Long Live Sino-British Friendship” at the party on deck, one Chinese official took to musing about the 19th century Opium wars, when UK gunboats bombarded Chinese ports.
“In the 19th century all of the visits undertaken by warships went from Britain to China,” he said. “There were none going the other way.”