Territorial tensions in the South China Sea, Taiwan Strait and East China Sea may occupy headlines, but China has maritime aspirations that extend well beyond those areas, Naval News reports.
This can be seen in recent “goodwill” naval activity by the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) in the South Pacific, as strategic competition with the USA and allies hots up.
The PLAN conducts regular medical missions in the Pacific – for example, the Type 920 hospital ship Peace Ark departed Zhoushan on 3 July to commence Harmonious Mission 2023.
The 14,000-tonne vessel stopped in Kiribati, Tonga, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste, before returning home in September. Peace Ark was making maiden visits to both Kiribati and Solomon Islands. With 126 Chinese military and civilian medical personnel aboard, it stayed a week in each port to offer free medical services.
Likewise, the PLAN’s modern Type 680 training ship Qi Jiguang has also been active in the South Pacific. After departing Qingdao on 4 September, with midshipmen of the Dalian Naval Academy aboard, it visited Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Fiji in turn.
Some 350 sailor cadets were aboard, including ship riders from five foreign countries. One of them, Sub-Lieutenant Josaia Naulu from Fiji, told CGTN: “We had a wonderful journey. On board, we had training both theoretical and practical, which varied from navigation, seamanship and engineering. In addition to that, we also need to do the duty on board, in the bridge, electrical control room as well as engineering control room.” SubLt Naulu had just completed a four-year naval degree in China.
The 163m-long Qi Jiguang conducted bilateral training in each country that it visited. The PLA said such activities “continue traditional friendly military ties with their…southern Pacific counterparts”.
Earlier in the year, the 9,000-tonne Qi Jiguang visited Vietnam, Thailand, Brunei and the Philippines. “It is designed to improve the operational adaptability and capability of Chinese naval officer cadets, strengthen maritime practical cooperation and mutual trust with the countries visited, and contribute to serving and building a maritime community with a shared future,” the PLA said.
Such cruises fly the China flag, plus they help project the country’s “blue economic passage” into the South Pacific. In 2017, China proposed three such “blue economic passages” as part of its Belt and Road Initiative, one of which is the China-Oceania-South Pacific passage.
However, more is at stake than mere economic sea lanes, for the PLAN is keen to develop links deep into the Pacific Ocean, well beyond the First Island Chain. An ability to perform long-range maritime monitoring, and to flexibly react in a time of tension, is important to the PLAN.
The Pentagon’s 2023 edition of the Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China report noted:
“The PRC is seeking to expand its overseas logistics and basing infrastructure to allow the PLA to project and sustain military power at greater distances. If realised, a global PLA military logistics network could disrupt US military operations as the PRC’s global military objectives evolve.”
The prospect of new Chinese naval bases, and prevalent platforms crisscrossing the South Pacific, has alarmed Australia, New Zealand and the USA.
China is attempting to gain a strategic foothold in Pacific Island nations, and it has already gained an influential position in Solomon Islands, for instance. A bilateral security agreement permits China to send military personnel to help maintain order, though the Solomon Island government denies this will lead to a Chinese military base.
Of course, China is not the only nation that conducts goodwill naval missions in the Pacific. Captain Claudine Caluori of the US Navy told media on 3 November that nearly 1,500 personnel were involved in the USN’s Pacific Partnership 2023, including some from Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and the UK.
Capt Caluori, the Pacific Partnership 2023 mission commander, said the programme was in its 18th iteration, since the first was conducted in response to the devastating 2004 tsunami that struck South and Southeast Asia.
This year’s mission centred upon the dock landing ship USS Pearl Harbor (LSD 52) and Independence-class USS Jackson (LCS 6). Pacific Partnership 2023 commenced in Vietnam in August, and subsequently stopped in the Philippines, Malaysia, Samoa, Palau, Papua New Guinea and Fiji.
Naval News asked Capt Caluori whether there had been any cooperation or competition between the USN and PLAN during Pacific Partnership 2023, or any encounters between the two navies. The mission commander responded that she was “not aware of any contacts at this time”. Capt Caluori further noted that Pacific Partnership is conducted yearly, so it should not be construed as a response to any nation or current events.
She continued: “…The US Navy and our allies and partners, we value our growing cooperation with host nations and we look forward to enhancing the lines of communication and understanding that promotes greater cooperation and partnerships that benefit all nations.
“All Pacific Partnership 2023 operations are driven by host nation requests and approval … The host nations invite the US Navy and its mission partners to visit and conduct tailored humanitarian civic action preparedness activities in areas such as engineering, disaster response, public health and outreach events. And again, all additional criteria are taken into consideration, such as the host nation objections and desires.”
The PLAN’s first deployment into Oceania was in 1976, but its first port calls in the region occurred only as recently as 1998. To date, Chinese naval vessels have conducted some 54 port calls in Oceania; the frequency has increased since 2010, particularly in Melanesia and western Polynesia.
China’s first naval training visit to the South Pacific occurred in 2012, while medical missions have been ongoing since 2014. These have occurred four times each so far, with COVID-19 having temporarily impacted their frequency.
Fiji is the most regular host after racking up 20 port calls, including numerous Yuan Wang space tracking ships of the China Satellite Maritime Tracking and Control Department. Incidentally, China donated the catamaran hydrographic vessel RFNS Kacau to Fiji in 2019.
China also deployed two naval vessels – the Type 071 landing platform dock Wuzhishan and Type 901 supply ship Chaganhu – to Tonga after a January 2022 volcanic eruption and subsequent tsunami.
