Xi Jinping unveils three new warships in warning to Taiwan
Chinese President Xi Jinping presides over unprecedented triple warship commissioning ceremony, amid growing concern he’s building a force capable of retaking Taiwan.
President Xi has presided over a rare public display of China’s growing naval strength by unveiling three new warships – one an amphibious helicopter carrier, hailed as the most advanced vessel in the nation’s fleet – amid growing concern that he is building a force capable of retaking Taiwan.
The carrier, named Hainan, is designed as an offensive platform from which to launch an amphibious or airborne assault and can transport up to 1,200 troops as well as dozens of helicopters and jump jets. The second vessel, the Dalian, is a guided-missile cruiser with stealth technology; the third is an upgraded Type 094A nuclear-powered submarine, the Changzheng-18, believed to be capable of carrying 12 JL-2 intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The ceremony, in a military port in the southern city of Sanya, coincided with a warning from Wang Yi, the foreign Minister, that the US would have to accept China’s rise if it wanted to coexist peacefully. “Democracy is not Coca-Cola, with the US producing the syrup and the whole world has one single taste,” he said.
Xi’s presence at the commissioning ceremony on Friday follows months of growing tensions in the disputed South China Sea and around the self-governing island of Taiwan, which Beijing is vowing to take back by force if necessary. This is the first time that China has openly commissioned a nuclear-powered submarine.
“This shows a fundamental change in our defence technology,” the party-run newspaper Global Times said. It pointed out that no other country had commissioned three types of warships simultaneously. “But it happened in China,” it added. Song Zhongping, a Chinese military commentator, told the newspaper that the vessels would play “important roles in solving questions in places like the island of Taiwan and the South China Sea”.
Beijing has solidified its territorial claims in the South China Sea by building a chain of fortified islands and has breached Taiwanese air space with increasing regularity as a reminder of its intentions. It considers both issues as vital to the national interest.
The triple commissioning ceremony is evidence of Xi’s determination to develop a world-class navy. The Dalian, a Type 055 destroyer, is armed with anti-ship missiles, mid-range anti-air missiles and possibly also China’s new anti-submarine missiles. The US says the vessel is large enough to be designated as a cruiser.
The Chinese navy has 79 submarines, more than any other country, although it has fewer nuclear-powered submarines than the US. In an unusual display on Friday, state television showed at least three Type 094 submarines in the water.
Peter Dutton, Australia’s defence Minister, said yesterday (Sunday) that conflicts with China over Taiwan “should not be discounted”. He added: “People need to be realistic about the activity. There is militarisation of bases across the region. Obviously, there is a significant amount of activity and there is an animosity between Taiwan and China.
“We want to make sure we continue to be a good neighbour in the region, that we work with our partners and with our allies and nobody wants to see conflict between China and Taiwan or anywhere else.”
Relations with Beijing have soured in recent months, leading to a trade war that escalated yesterday (Sunday) with news of a ban on importing Australian grapes. Most are grown in the state of Victoria, where a deal for Chinese investment to fund infrastructure projects as part of Xi’s “belt and road” financing program was scrapped by the Australian government last week.
In Japan the military is weighing up its possible response in the event of a military conflict between the US and China over Taiwan, according to the Kyodo News agency. The US has a military base on the Japanese island of Okinawa that would play a significant role in any American defence of the island nation, whose armed forces are easily outmatched by those on the mainland.
China has insisted that its rise is peaceful, but it makes no secret of its ambitions to compete with the US militarily. It accuses Washington of causing regional instability by sending warships to the South China Sea and by conducting frequent reconnaissance missions near the Chinese coastline. It has said often that it is willing to use force to seize Taiwan to reunite it with the mainland. To do that, however, it knows that it must be prepared to fend off possible military intervention by the US, which is working with its allies in the region to protect Taiwan.
Wang Yi told the Council on Foreign Relations think tank via video that Washington held the key to harmonious relations. He said that the US needed to accept the peaceful rise of China and the differences between the countries’ social systems, history, culture and development, and to acknowledge the right of Chinese people to have a better life.
“China has no intent to compete with the US,” Wang said. “What China focuses on is overtaking itself and improving itself. If there is only one model, one civilisation on the Earth, the world will lose its vitality.”
Separately, the China National Space Administration and Roscosmos, its Russian counterpart, have confirmed plans to co-operate on developing a moon base known as the International Lunar Research Station. Mou Yu, one of China’s leading space scientists, said they were developing a new heavy-lift rocket. According to Global Times, it will be capable of carrying a 100-tonne payload to the moon.
The Times
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