CHINA AND U.S. STAGE YELLOW SEA WAR GAMES / THE FINANCIAL TIMES ( VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED READING )

China and US stage Yellow Sea war games

By Kathrin Hille in Beijing

Published: September 3 2010 13:49

China and the US have been staging near-simultaneous naval exercises this week in the oceans around the Yellow Sea in one of the most open displays of the rising competition between the two rival forces in north Asia.

The Chinese navy’s North Sea Fleet is practising shooting artillery in waters south-east of Qingdao until Saturday, while the US and South Korea are scheduled to hold a joint exercise in the Yellow Sea from Sunday.

While the US war games are intended as a show of force towards North Korea, Beijing’s latest exercises illustrates a pattern of increasing assertiveness on the part of its military, especially its navy experts say.

“China’s naval power is growing rapidly. This is something which the US long expected to happen but which has now reached a level where it is clearly felt also by China’s neighbours,” says Gary Li, an expert on the PLA Navy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

China stresses that its latest, and other recent, exercises were not a response to the US-South Korea manoeuvres or to Washington’s recent announcement that the US had a “national interest” in the South China Sea, a statement which infuriated Beijing.

But observers note that Beijing has sent a clear message by publicising these latest exercises, which it has not done in the past.

The Chinese navy’s increased presence has been most marked in the South China Sea, where Beijing’s territorial claims overlap with its neighbours, including the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia.

These countries emphasise the strategic importance of the sea because the passage through it of oil tankers and the potential for exploitation of undiscovered undersea resources.

Bud Cole, a Chinese navy expert at the US Naval War College, says Chinese naval exercises in the South China Sea – which were consistent for most of the past decade – have changed in nature.

The Chinese navy has added new ships and electronic systems and its three regional fleets are increasingly able to integrate operations. These closer ties were demonstrated most recently at a major exercise in the South China Sea last month.

Bigger changes are also taking place in the area following the completion of a submarine base on the south-eastern island of Hainan.

Diplomats from two south-east Asian countries said the Chinese navy had conducted bombing exercises over the South China Sea over the past seven months, and more frequent exercises were expected in connection with the new base at Hainan.

In addition, analysts say the Chinese navy appears to have taken over part of China’s fisheries law enforcement command, so that some coast guard patrols that were previously unarmed now appear to be equipped with anti-aircraft guns, according to Mr Li.

This could help explain the uptick in fisheries disputes in the area and could also pose the risk of more dangerous confrontations at sea. Over the past couple of years, the US navy has observed a number of incidents at sea, including one whether Chinese vessels came dangerously close to a US spy ship.

Another far-reaching change is on the way. Robert Willard, the head of US Pacific Command, recently said China was close to making an anti-ship ballistic missile operational. Once deployed, the missile dubbed an “[aircraft] carrier killer” could help the Chinese military deny US naval craft access to regional waters.

Military analysts say the Chinese navy has also learnt how to improve its ability to undertake sustained operations from its participation in international anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden.

“They are having an extremely steep learning curve,” says Mr Li. During the first few missions last year, the Chinese navy practised basic things such as food supply planning, and greatly enhanced its knowledge of the waters from the South China Sea to the Horn of Africa.

By now, the Chinese navy has its sixth escort mission on the way to the Gulf of Aden, and is getting a maximum exercise effect by bringing in a greater array of vessels. Earlier this week, its biggest hospital ship visited the area on its first international mission.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010.