India should be worried as Beijing has now World’s largest number of vessels
By Anjan Roy
China has commissioned its latest aircraft carrier, Fujian, this week which further confirms it is the world’s largest blue water navy by vessels count.
Fujian aircraft carrier is a mammoth ship comparable only to the largest ones of the US navy in the same class and capability. The ship has been built completely indigenously in a Chinese shipyard and incorporates a special aircraft lift system which allows its aircraft to easily take off with higher load of weapons and fuel. That means the aircraft would have larger weapons capacity and lethality and also longer range of operation.
This special aircraft take off system known as the electromagnetic catapults to enable the ship’s aircraft to easily lift with higher loads without the conventional sky jumping system. Only some other US aircraft carriers have similar facilities for heavier take offs. Additionally, the ship has a huge armoury of weapons systems and high-tech gadgets which make a formidable foe on sea.
The global media and strategic community have noted the commissioning of the new aircraft carrier and speaking about what challenges these vessels create for the US navy. In sheer numbers the Chinese fleet is far larger, though many claim that the US naval capability still remains far ahead of China. They point out the technical superiority of the US vessels. Yet, these experts could not help but notice the muscles of the overall Cheese fleet.
What is worry for USA, is trebly more worrisome for India. China is probing Indian presence in the Indian Ocean region and their vessels are routinely coming into the Indian Ocean, which is the natural playground for the Indian navy. Even though the Indian Ocean is far from its natural operational area, China is increasingly showing its capacity in the Indian Ocean region.
The Chinese have presence in Africa’s East coast and their claimed area of supervision ranges all across to Malacca Straits and then into the South China Seas. This is the area of interest for the Indian navy and only a few days back the vice chief of Indian navy had detailed the tasks before the Indian navy and its surveillance abilities.
The vice chief pointed out that the movements of the Chinese vessels in the region are constantly being monitored and reviewed. He specifically referred to the visit of a so-called research vessels which had docked in the Sri Lankan port and its activities were closely tracked.
But surely, the launching of such a massive aircraft carrier adds further worries for the US, let alone India. Even America is already dwarfed by the scurrilous pace at which China has added to its naval flotilla. China has demonstrated its ship building capacity by quickly turning out vessels far faster than any other naval power.
In sheer numbers the Chinese navy is at least 20% larger than the US fleet. Moreover, the Chinese ship-building yards have far greater capacity to produce new ships than US yards and the international yards which supply such vessels.
The new ship has been earmarked for deployment in the near Pacific waters to begin with which are witnessing a series of skirmishes between Chinese patrols and ships belonging to other nations in these international waters. Chinese are claiming an ever rising swathes of the international waters and global shipping highways as its own sovereign territory.
This is creating serious tensions with a large number of countries around the South China seas. China is claiming the entire South China Sea as its exclusive sovereign waters, although a number of other countries are on the coasts and they have their own exclusive coastal rights. A few months back, China had a spat with the Philippines and there are constant irritations with Indonesia and Vietnam.
This is bringing China close to confrontation with a large number of littoral states, as well as, global operators from other countries. In a recent such encounter, the Australians have complained that the Chinese had manoeuvred unprofessionally around the complainant’s vessels and endangered the lives of the crew and others.
However, in its present mood, China is rather deaf to the complaints of others in the region. The Chinese world view, as conceptualised by Xi Jinping, is similar to Putin’s imperialistic view of Russian Imperial possession.
Xi is playing the hyper nationalistic vision and the sway of China over a vast area. He is now trying to recreate that old empire at its maximum spread which includes almost whole of south-east Asia, the seas around and also the entire north eastern region of India, including the Siliguri corridor.
With such world view, China is bound to clash with many a nations, not to say, India. . India must put its best efforts to avoid a confrontation and head-on clash till India reaches comparable levels of economic development and weapons might. (IPA Service)
