Double-digit increases in defence spending alarm China’s neighbours but budgets and troop levels only tell half the story
China’s military made history practically every day last week. On Thursday it was the Lin Yi, a guided missile frigate, which spent 75 minutes moored in war-torn Yemen’s port of Aden before setting off to Djibouti with 225 evacuees.
Billed by Beijing as the navy’s first international maritime rescue evacuation, the mission helps show the rising ambitions of the People’s Liberation Army.
A few days earlier, state television showed a satellite photo of three submarines anchored at a top-secret base on China’s southern island of Hainan. The report identified them as the navy’s most advanced Type-093G nuclear powered attack submarines, which experts say will start China’s first patrol by nuclear powered subs later this year.
WNU Editor: The new Chinese president has been very clear since the first day that he assumed the office .... the People's Liberation Army must be prepared for war. My suggestion is that we should take him at his word.