China has been rapidly beefing up its navy with new destroyers, submarines and missiles. Naval officers have even been talking about building an aircraft carrier that could help the navy become a "blue-water" force — a fleet capable of operating far from home.
Denny Roy, a senior fellow at the East-West Center in Hawaii, said the naval buildup and the mission to Somalia are the latest signs that China is no longer willing to rely on the U.S. or other foreign navies to protect its increasingly global interests.
"China has not been dissuaded from entering the field," Roy said. "That leaves open the possibility of a China-U.S. naval rivalry in the future."
Roy predicted China's move would alarm Japan and some in South Korea because both countries have long-standing territorial disputes with China. But he said most Southeast Asian countries may see China's involvement in the anti-piracy campaign as a positive thing. It would mean that China was using its greater military might for constructive purposes, rather than challenging the current international order.
India, another longtime rival of China, would likely welcome the Chinese naval presence off Somalia for the short term, said C. Uday Bhaskar, a former naval commander and retired director of India's Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses. He doubted it would upset the strategic balance.
China's military has not said how long the mission would last, but the state-run China Daily newspaper recently reported the ships would be gone for about three months.
The mission will likely offer Chinese sailors invaluable on-the-job training, according to Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-based intelligence company. The mission will be complex, with crews having to do refueling, resupply and repairs far from home amid the constant threat of pirate attacks.
The waters will also be crowded with naval ships from around the world, testing the Chinese ships' abilities to communicate effectively with other vessels in a common mission that has little central organization.
The Chinese will very likely monitor the way foreign forces, "especially U.S. warships, communicate with each other and with their shipborne helicopters," the Stratfor report said.
A NATO task force to the Gulf of Aden was recently replaced by a European Union flotilla with four to six ships patrolling the area.
About a dozen other warships, including U.S., German, and Danish ships, are in the region as part of a separate international flotilla based in Bahrain and engaged in anti-terrorism operations. Several individual nations, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Malaysia and India, also have vessels in the Gulf of Aden.
The China Daily on Friday quoted Rear Adm. Du Jingchen, the mission's chief commander, as saying a total of 1,000 crew members will be on the three Chinese ships.
"We could encounter unforeseen situations," Du was quoted as saying. "But we are prepared for them."
