China's Aircraft Carrier Is Nothing to Fear
APR 9, 2014 6:31 PM EDT
By The Editors



Chinese officials gave U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel a tour of an aircraft carrier this week. The Liaoning is their only such vessel -- but not for long. China plans to build three more by 2020 as part of its new “blue-water navy,” a prospect that sounds alarming but isn’t. The cause for concern lies elsewhere.

A globe-spanning Chinese navy capable of operating across deep oceans will draw Beijing’s strategic vision away from its own neighborhood, where it's embroiled in territorial disputes, and toward the global commons, which China will have a growing stake in securing. The U.S. Navy's blue-water capabilities are vastly more powerful, and it will be that way for many years to come.

The greater danger is China's other military investments. It's deploying thousands of surface-to-surface missiles near its eastern shore, and it is also building a fleet of quiet diesel submarines and advanced anti-ship ballistic-missile batteries. China's cyber-attacks on U.S. government agencies and private defense corporations have become increasingly aggressive.

These so-called asymmetric capabilities are tailored to goals that could bring China and the U.S. into conflict. The missiles stationed opposite Taiwan are intended to force Taipei into reintegrating with the mainland. The attack submarines and anti-ship missiles are designed to deter U.S. intervention in any dispute between China and its neighbors, as well as displace U.S. influence in the western Pacific. Cyber-attacks are likewise meant to counter the U.S. military’s conventional superiority.

China’s plans for a blue-water navy centered on aircraft carriers follow a course the U.S. Navy plotted more than half a century ago. This head start gives the U.S. an insurmountable lead in operational experience and military hardware. The Liaoningis a refurbished Soviet warship with a conventional (not nuclear) power plant and a tilted deck that severely limits the range and payload of its aircraft. It would be no match for any of the U.S. Navy's 11 nuclear-powered carriers, each carrying twice as many aircraft and state-of-the-art catapults for launching them.

China’s planned new carriers will be far more capable than the Liaoning -- but at a crippling price. The newest U.S. carrier will cost $13 billion. Add roughly 60 aircraft, 6,700 sailors, and other vessels to support and protect it, and a single U.S. carrier strike group costs roughly $6.5 million a day to operate. Such outlays are a questionable investment even for the U.S., let alone China. China's blue-water ambitions will drain a significant portion of its military budget to a sphere it cannot hope to dominate.

Better still, the strategic aims that China can reasonably advance with a carrier-based navy are relatively benign. Such a force could protect China’s energy lifeline of oil tankers stretching to the Middle East, which is occasionally threatened by pirates. It could more effectively respond to humanitarian disasters and, if the need arose, evacuate Chinese citizens working in far-flung locations.

In addition, of course, China's government wants its blue-water navy for prestige, as a symbol of the country's rise to great-power status. That's fine, too -- so long as it poses no threat to U.S. naval dominance. When it comes to Chinese military power, aircraft carriers are the least of the world's concerns.

To contact the senior editor responsible for Bloomberg View's editorials: David Shipley at davidshipley@bloomberg.net.

http://www.bloombergview.com/article...thing-to-fear?

7 April 2014 Last updated at 09:43

US defence chief Hagel tours China's Liaoning aircraft carrier



US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel has toured China's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, at the beginning of a three-day visit to China.

Mr Hagel, who arrived in the port of Qingdao from Japan, is thought to be the first senior Western official to board the vessel.

China bought it from Ukraine in 1998 and has spent 10 years refitting it.

It is seen as a potent symbol of China's ambition to modernise its navy, amid a strategic shift in the region.

The fact that the US secretary of defence was allowed to step on board the carrier will be seen as a sign that the two countries may be willing to engage in more military co-operation, reports the BBC's Martin Patience in Beijing.

Washington has repeatedly called for more transparency from Beijing on its military spending, our correspondent adds.

Sea trials

US officials said that the defence chief's visit to the Liaoning at Yuchi naval base - which took place after a US request - lasted about two hours.

No further details were immediately available and journalists accompanying him on the China visit did not go with him.

The carrier was built in the 1980s for the Soviet navy but was never completed.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the rusting hull - then called the Varyag - sat in dockyards in Ukraine.

A Chinese company with links to China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) then bought the Varyag, saying it wanted to turn the vessel into a floating casino in Macau.

In 2001 the ship was towed to China. The Chinese military confirmed in June 2011 that it was being refitted to serve as the nation's first aircraft carrier.

Earlier this year, it completed sea trials in the South China Sea, where China has overlapping territorial claims with several South East Asian nations.

Beijing's more assertive stance on this issue in recent years has led to a rise in tensions between China and its neighbours, particularly Vietnam and the Philippines.

China is also embroiled in a separate dispute over East China Sea islands that are controlled by Japan.

In Tokyo, Mr Hagel addressed regional territorial disputes, saying Chinese authorities should have "respect for their neighbours".

"You cannot... redefine boundaries and violate territorial integrity and sovereignty of nations by force, coercion and intimidation, whether it's in small islands in the Pacific or large nations in Europe," he said.

The Liaoning aircraft carrier has already attracted controversy. Late last year, Mr Hagel criticised China as "irresponsible" after the near-collision of a US warship and a Chinese naval vessel in the South China Sea.

The US said its guided missile cruiser, USS Cowpens, was operating in international waters on 5 December when the Chinese vessel - which was accompanying the Liaoning - forced it to take evasive action.

State-run newspaper Global Times, however, quoted an expert as saying that the US boat had been "harassing" the Liaoning as it carried out drills.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26917693

The greater danger is China's other military investments. It's deploying thousands of surface-to-surface missiles near its eastern shore, and it is also building a fleet of quiet diesel submarines and advanced anti-ship ballistic-missile batteries