People's Liberation Army
(PLA) Navy sailors stand on the deck of a Chinese warship at the
international port in Manila on April 13, 2010. China recently sent
three warships to Tanzania for discussions on anti-piracy operations.
(Ted Aljibe/AFP/Getty Images)
The Chinese navy docked three ships at Tanzania’s Dar es
Salaam Port on May 30 for a four-day meeting on how to fight piracy in
the Indian Ocean, according to a report from state-run news outlet
Xinhua.
Chinese diplomats and Tanzanian Navy officials attended a welcoming
ceremony at the port, and the brief report notes the Chinese navy has
been sending warships to the Gulf of Aden since December 2008 (as have
many other nations) for escort missions, mainly due to the threat of
Somali pirates.
The more important element to this story, however, is what’s not
being said. The real story was detailed in a report published in The
Namibian on Nov. 19, 2014, which said China was planning to build 18
naval bases with a goal to surround the Indian Ocean.
It said these alleged naval bases would be in countries including
Tanzania, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Burma, Djibouti, Yemen, Oman, Kenya,
Mozambique, Seychelles, and Madagascar. The source of the article in The
Namibian was a 2013 story published in a Chinese state-run newspaper,
the International Herald Leader.
The Chinese regime initially denied the report, but in the time since
then, China has signed deals with every country listed to either gain
port access or cooperate on building new ports.
China has also been stirring up trouble with India, with naval
incursions that Indian officials have deemed too close for comfort. As
Indian defense officials began to express their concerns, a senior
captain from China’s National Defense University warned India on June 1,
2015, saying the Indian Ocean is not India’s backyard.
I detailed some of these incidents in a report on Oct. 26, 2015, and
explained that China has a long-term interest in gaining influence over
key chokepoints, and all signs suggest that the Indian Ocean will be its next naval focal point.
Richard Fisher, senior fellow with the International Assessment and
Strategy Center, said in a previous interview that “one of the opening
moves in China’s quest for global military and economic dominance” is to
first break out of the South China Sea, “and then project into the
Indian Ocean.”
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