The link below offers a very good reason why China is rapidly building a large military fleet of modern warships. China, as I’m sure readers realize, is a huge and rapidly-growing economic colossus. As it modernizes its entire nation, China has a voracious appetite for raw materials of every conceivable kind. When China was a mostly-backward nation, it was a land-power without much need for a powerful navy. However, now that its modernization program is dependent on the import of many strategic minerals and commodities, it must build a powerful navy to protect the maritime supply lines which bring the shiploads of commodities to China.
The link below also notes that Russia (China’s strategic partner in the prophesied Ezekiel 38 Gog-Magog alliance), which is rich in minerals and energy resources, is a classic land power without a pressing need for a navy to protect vital shipping lanes. China, on the other hand, is coming into increasing economic, monetary and commercial conflict with the USA, and the USA has a powerful navy which could cut off the flow of raw materials to China’s industry in a future war. Therefore, China is building a navy to confront and engage the U.S. Navy. As my previous blogs have documented, China’s navy is not being built around aircraft carrier battle groups like the U.S. Navy. China, recognizing that the U.S. carriers are the key to the power of the U.S. Navy, is building a navy which is designed to sink U.S. carriers with submarines and surface ships equipped to fire supersonic cruise missiles, new high-speed torpedoes, etc. as well as ballistic missiles which can be fired at carriers from land bases.
Geographically, the Malacca Straits are critical as a shipping gate for all Asian sea traffic. Singapore is a key nation that guards the access to that critical sea gate. China needs good terms with Singapore, as the link notes, but Singapore’s Navy has conducted joint exercises with the navies of the USA, India, Japan and Australia so Singapore seems to regard China as a threat to its own well-being. Many cargoes headed for China also pass through the Indian Ocean, and India is the regional power which can shut down Chinese commercial traffic if India has a strong enough navy or sufficient missiles that it can fire at Chinese vessels from land bases. Given India’s natural rivalry with China and India’s weaker position militarily vis-à-vis China, India has been drawing steadily closer to the USA as a natural ally. The USA needs India as an ally as much as India needs the USA as an allied power.
Another key source of potential conflict is Taiwan. The second link below reports on the delicate dance the Obama administration is doing re: a major weapons package desired by Taiwan. Taiwan wants a large number of F-16 warplanes and several submarines from the USA, but Obama is expected to deny those big-ticket items (due to pressure from China, the USA’s banker, no doubt). Taiwan has wanted these new weapons for years, and President Bush also dithered about selling them to Taiwan (no doubt for the same reason). If the USA does not sell warplanes and submarines to Taiwan, Taiwan will be forced to shop elsewhere for such items and the U.S. weapons industry will lose a huge amount of business. In any war with China, the nation of Taiwan can become an unsinkable aircraft carrier for the U.S. military, so the USA would be foolish not to sell F-16s and submarines to Taiwan to keep it independent. I hope the second link below is wrong and that Obama will decide to sell these major weapons systems to Taiwan after all. However, foolishness seems to reign supreme in Washington, DC nowadays. Because the USA has long disobeyed the biblical warning in Proverbs 22:7 about getting too far into debt (to China), the USA is losing the ability to act in its own strategic interests in matters regarding China. This is a very dangerous trend for the future independence and survival of the USA.
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htsurf/articles/20091211.aspx
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/12/09/the_white_house_tries_to_thread_the_china_needle
