Word: qingdao
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Last month, delegations from the naval fleets of 14 nations met at the Chinese port of Qingdao to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLA-Navy). It was a chummy affair of joint exercises and processions at sea, overseen by white-clad officers in full regalia. In a speech there, Chinese president Hu Jintao trumpeted his country's emergence as a budding maritime power, while assuring foreign observers that China "would never seek hegemony, nor would it turn to arms races with other nations." Instead, Hu claimed, the retooled and expanding Chinese...
...response to China's gains - which include putting out three new submarines a year since 1995 - neighboring countries have also set about beefing up their fleets. Just a week after the ceremonies in Qingdao, Vietnam announced its purchase of six kilo-class submarines from Russia. On May 2, the Australian government published a white paper outlining a twenty year, $74 billion plan to revitalize its navy so it could be ready, if need be, to counter a "major power adversary" - a thinly veiled reference to how some defense officials there imagine China's military project. "The front line...
...west. Now, Japan is due to launch its largest ship since World War II, a "Hyuga" class helicopter carrier - Japan's pacifist constitution forbids the use of carriers with more offensive aircraft - that is designed chiefly for anti-submarine warfare. Seoul paraded a similar 14,000 ton vessel at Qingdao...
...they are smart, China's political leaders in Beijing will force its military to respond in kind. Prior to the festivities in Qingdao this week, Admiral Gary Roughead, the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations, visited his counterpart in Beijing, Vice Admiral Wu. There, the two talked up the two nation's cooperation in combating Somali pirates, but that wasn't the real point of the meeting. For years, the Pentagon has been frustrated by China's secrecy over its military budgeting and its intentions. The U.S. brass simply doesn't believe Beijing when it says its defense spending...
...boats will sail together just off the coast of the historic port city of Qingdao, an armada of Chinese naval vessels, accompanied by 21 visiting ships from 14 different foreign Navies - the United States very much included. On April 19, the U.S.S. Fitzgerald, a 6,800 ton missile destroyer with the storied 7th Fleet, cruised into Qingdao harbor, a welcoming phalanx of Chinese sailors standing at attention dockside...