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| CMS ships lie at anchor |
As regional tensions continue to grow over overlapping claims in the South and East China Seas, China’s premier civilian maritime agency announced last week it would commission more than three dozen new vessels by next year.
Quoting Chinese government officials, the state-affiliated China Daily reported that to safeguard China’s huge maritime interests, the China Marine Surveillance (CMS) would add 36 ships to its fleet by next year. An unnamed CMS official said that seven vessels would have a displacement of 1,500 tonnes, 15 of 1,000 tonnes and 14 of 600 tonnes. Construction of the 600-tonne cutters reportedly began on Tuesday in Weihai, Shandong Province. The vessels will be distributed to 14 provinces, autonomous regions and cities along the Chinese coastline, it said.
My article, published today in the Taipei Times, continues here.
China is rapidly expanding its naval capabilities to simply project power into the region as a stabilizing force in the face of actions taken by regional forces that risk destabilizing Asia. ;)
ReplyDeletefor example?
ReplyDeleteInteresting to see what was posted by the above anonymous. I am assuming what is meant by "stabalizing" is activities that advance China's territorial ambitions and desire for dominance while "destabilizing" means all activities that stand in the way of China's territorial ambitions and desire for dominance.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt the PLAN is increasing its capabilities and numbers, but to what extent are these new cutters replacing older vessels?
ReplyDeleteFOARP: A valid point, as the CMS and other agencies do need to replace old vessels. What I find interesting, though, is that those 36 vessels were scheduled for commissioning over a period of five years, starting last year. The whole program has been accelerated, with all ships to enter service by end of next year.
ReplyDelete@J. Michael Cole - A valid point, and I hadn't really thought about the reasons for this. As you point out in your article, they likely wish to be more assertive in their claims to various parts of the South and East China Seas and the order has come down the line that these cutters are needed ASAP.
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