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China's navy floats a warning to
Taiwan
By Iris Tsang
HONG
KONG - A Chinese submarine intentionally surfaced in the
vicinity of Japanese waters recently after a stealthy
drill, staging a show of the Chinese navy's ability to
dodge Japan's reconnaissance and sending a warning to
the United States, Japan and even Taiwan.
Around
8am on November 12, a Japanese Marine Self-Defense Force
P-3C spotted a Chinese attack submarine heading west on
the surface of international waters 25 miles east of
Satamisaki, a port town of Kagoshima prefecture on
Kyushu Island. The sub sailed through the Osumi Strait
between Kyushu and Tanegashima, a tiny southern Japanese
island.
The information was confirmed by Chinese
authorities the next day, when Foreign Ministry
spokesman Liu Jianchao said the submarine's appearance
in waters near Japan was "routine maritime training".
But the submarine was discovered sailing
westward, meaning that it was already on a return voyage
from a secret mission before it deliberately floated up
to the surface for detection, according to an analysis
by military strategists.
Taiwan, long coveted by
mainland China, has been implicitly covered by a
US-Japan security pact since September 1997, when the
Guidelines for Japan-US Defense Cooperation signed by
the two sides extended Japan's military leverage into
"situations in areas surrounding Japan". The concept
"situations in areas surrounding Japan" is not defined
as "geographic" but "situational". Under the guidelines,
the two governments "will make every effort, including
diplomatic efforts, to prevent further deterioration of
the situation".
Yet the 2,113-ton diesel-powered
Ming-class vessel, which popped up at a record-close
distance from the Japanese shore, demonstrates the
Chinese navy's power to breach Japan's and the United
States' joint defense of Taiwan.
And as some
media have put it, the submarine was not even detected
by Japan's US-made P-3C Orion aircraft, allegedly the
most advanced anti-submarine scouts in the world, until
China's national flag was hoisted after its surfacing.
The news has been interpreted as a deliberate move by
China to humiliate Japan, a major informant for the
United States in any cross-Strait tension. If China did
undertake any military deployment near the Taiwan
Strait, it would be predictable from this incident how
swiftly Japan could react.
The move by the
Chinese navy and the prompt response from the Foreign
Ministry are no coincidence. Rather, they are an example
of how responses have been arranged purposefully to deal
with escalating tension in the Taiwan Strait.
Recently, Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian has
been pushing his notion of a referendum for a new
constitution, an intrigue for legalizing the separation
of the island. Accordingly, Beijing has highlighted its
anti-separatism stance. Many People's Liberation Army
(PLA) senior generals have reiterated seriously that
Taiwan's declaration of separation would also be the
mainland's declaration of war against the island, as Luo
Yuan, director of the research center the Chinese
Academy of Military Science, said in a Beijing seminar
last Tuesday on cross-Strait relations.
According to Taiwan's International Defense
Review, the submarine, belonging to the East Sea Fleet
of the PLA Navy, might have commenced its voyage from
Zhoushan base at the mouth of Hangzhou Bay, Zhejiang
province. Moreover, the fleet's major mission is all
Taiwan-related: it is qualified to wage attacks on
Taiwan, if necessary; on the other hand, it is capable
of blockading the East China Sea and hence pricking the
island's bubble of US aid.
Military experts have
always closely watched the development of the Chinese
navy. A report in the Washington Observer Weekly in May
pointed out that Chinese submarine forces were facing
problems with aging and that at present it was difficult
for China to develop new submarines. Nonetheless, US
military experts dare not play down the functionality of
Chinese submarines.
In fact, this is not the
only example of the Chinese navy's underwater
capabilities. According to a Washington Times report on
June 2, 2001, which quoted informed sources in the US
military, a Chinese Ming-class attack submarine once
departed from Qingdao port in eastern China's Shangdong
province and kept sailing underwater for one month. To
top it all off, US intelligence completely failed to
detect such a move. Some intelligence believes this
shows that China has been significantly improving its
combat capacities underwater.
A report from Hong
Kong's The Sun daily covering the story suggested that
the submarine's movement was obviously designed to show
China's teeth.
Apparently as a response to
Chinese military action, the US military has offered a
helping hand to Taiwan by announcing that the Taiwanese
military has successfully test-launched an AIM-120
advanced medium-range air-to-air missile (AMRAAM) in the
United States.
AMRAAM is a new-generation
air-to-air missile with all-weather and
beyond-visual-range capability. The Taiwan Air Force has
been longing for it for several years in order to secure
its air supremacy over China. According to the China
Times Express in Taiwan, the US agreed in 2000 to sell
the AMRAAM to the island, but the US$150 million AMRAAM
sale comes with an offset agreement that delivery of the
missiles would not take place until mainland China had
acquired missiles with parallel capabilities.
Ahead of Taiwan, the mainland has already
acquired the R-77 missile ("AMRAAMSKI"), researched and
manufactured by the Russian Vympel State Machinery
Design Bureau in 2002. This Russian missile resembles,
and in some respects matches, AMRAAM. This is why the US
is accelerating its delivery pace for Taiwan.
(Copyright 2003 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All
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