The People’s Liberation Army Navy is setting forth in force to do what no Chinese fleet has done for centuries: Seek out a foe, and fight him.
From the dockside of the Yalong Bay base the three decorated vessels that weighed anchor and slipped off into the tropical seas yesterday afternoon might have been any normal coastal patrol.
For Beijing – and for governments watching across the globe – it was the beginning of a new era in world naval history. The interests of China now extend far beyond its borders but this was the first time in more than five centuries that it has travelled (sic) outside its territorial waters to defend them.
“It’s the first time we go abroad to protect our strategic interests armed with military force,” Wu Shengli, the commander of the Chinese Navy, said at the launch on Hainan island. He described the deployment as an international humanitarian mission.
Lieutenant-Commander Xie Zengling said: “If the pirates make direct threats to the warships or the vessels we escort, the fleet will take counter-measures.” His special forces members could “handle several enemies with their bare hands”, he added.
The Middle Kingdom was always massive and diverse, with troubles enough to within their borders and close at hand to keep them fully occupied. It’s modern day successor was no different. Now they have aspirations to global reach, and are trying to build a modern, global force structure in support of those aims. They are – cleverly – starting small, and using an internationally sanctioned opportunity. Along the way, they’ll learn a great deal about operating naval forces far from their sustainment bases.
The rest of us will learn right alongside them.
They could learn something from the German Navy on how to catch pirates.
A German military helicopter chased away pirates who were trying to board an Egyptian ship on Thursday off the coast of Somalia. One of the ship’s crew members was shot in the attack.
The ship, a bulk carrier with 31 crew members, was passing through the Gulf of Aden on its way to Asia when gun-toting pirates in a speedboat began pursuing it, said Noel Choong of the International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting center.
A passing ship alerted the bureau, based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which asked a multinational naval coalition force in the area to help, Mr. Choong said.
In response, the German Navy frigate Karlsruhe sent a helicopter, a military spokesman said, speaking on condition of anonymity in accord with military policy.
The pirates fled as the helicopter reached the Egyptian ship, according to a statement from the German military, but not before shooting and wounding one of the ship’s crew members.
Someday soon we’ll all have to determine what to do with them once we’ve caught them.
Obviously, “Git a rope!”
I still have hopes of cruising the world in a small sailboat, and murderous pirates might interfere with that.
How strange that the ChiComs are now the forces of order on the seas.
(sigh) Somebody needs to do that, and we ain’t.
As far as I am concerned, we should NEVER have to decide what to do after catching them.
The proper response is to use sufficient firepower in the first place that the question never arises in the second.
Clarifying Edward:
1. Sink their boats.
2. Finish with Rockeye or equivalent. (FAE works, too)
3. Film shark special for National Geographic.
Yak is correct; nothing wrong with turning a dollar or two on sales to National Geographic–aren’t we Capitalist, Imperialist, “roaders”/running dogs after all? Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb…..
Hmmm….I wonder if keel hauling is still an exceptable practice? Might set a good example. Of course that would depend on whether anyone was still alive after yak finished with ‘em
The Chinese article states that they will protect ships that they are escorting.
Will be of interest to see if they assist others if called upon to do so.
Lex, I thought you would have picked up on the name of one of the destroyers in the linked article: Cheng Ho aka “Three Jewel Eunuch Admiral”. You have to hand it to the ChiComs–they’ve identified certain leadership traits. I haven’t served in the Navy (Army for me) but I’ve met a few fellows in my practice of law who might be Cheng Ho’s spiritual descendants.
That’s why I’ve got a comment box, Mike!
Forget the Nat Geographic film — send it straight to Youtube in near realtime.
Nature abhors a vacuum. Our absence of leadership and moral courage in handing these pirates their heads has left an opening for the Chinese. Now the ChiComs get to serve humanity and gain moral standing by killing bad guys.
How do you say “happy hunting” in Mandarin?
The Chinese have no qualms about shooting criminals in their own country and would likely show little hesitation with pirates.
Personally, I’d like to see the pirates hoisted at the end of a rope. It communicates intention and deliberation rather more clearly.
I think walking the plank would be most appropriate for pirates. They should be walked right into Yak’s NatGeo Special. I endorse making a profit and the lesson that’s in it.
In any and all cases, nary a penny should be spent to care for them! They’re pirates at sea … and ashore.
“People’s Liberation Army Navy” – I can’t believe you would say Army and Navy, associated, no less, in the same sentence. We gotta get you outta Dago soon.
Seriously, we already know what to do if we catch them. Having the cajones to do it is another question.
My youngest brother, in his younger, and much more blood thirsty days, had an idea he called “Piranha Court.” The idea was you would have a tank in the room next to the court room, and once the sentence of death was passed, you simply had the condemned walk into the room, told him to wait a bit, then withdrew the floor to allow the miscreant to plunge into a tank of starving Piranha. I could go for the NatGeo special. Just chum and place a flutter device in the water before throwing said former Pirate into the drink to provide further entertainment. Same idea as my brother’s blood thirsty idea. More seaman like as well. A tank of Piranha is a lubbers idea. He was always a treadhead at heart and ended up stationed at the Kaserne as Elvis the Pelvis (who honorably did not doge the draft) had been stationed.
It’s a pity that we have nothing in stock like the ASHVILLE class PGs anymore. This would be a job custom made for them. 37 knots, a 3″/50, a Bofors, and 5 twin .50s. Fast, well armed ships going in harms way, John Paul Jones would approve.
How sad that the nearest thing to them that we have today is the LCS, which costs billions, and has none of the combat capability of the PGs of the ’60′s.
If we still had a PG force, we could send that to the area, after making one very special addition to the PGRon deployed. We could buy the JAHRE VIKING to convert to a dual purpose ship, to be the PG Tender, and for the site of not Guy’s keel hauling, but of keel rakings. Keel haulings were port to starbord, keel haulings were fore and aft. Any pirate that survives the 1, 504 rake could be turned over to the UN. As she has been sitting still for the past 4 years in a Quatari port, her hull should certainly be clean and barnacle free.
Her huge, slow moving screws would give off low pressure pulse waves. As any helo pilot who has hovered in tropical waters can tell you, sharks love pulsed low pressure waves. This would save having to buy Quartermaster’s chum, making the whole operation much more affordable, and as no baitfish are harmed, more Eco Friendly.
I realise that she is permanantly moored at Nauticus, but it would also be nice if we could sent BB-64, the BIG BADGER BOAT, over to loom ominously on the horizion, “pour encourager les autres” to behave, as it were.
I rather like the way that pirates were dealt with as described in the Patrick O’Brian books about the English Navy of the early 1800′s.
Ron … is it possible to keelhaul a pirate under the hull of a carrier? And wouldn’t doing that take care of the problem of taking prisoners and things like the Geneva Convention the liberals are always bringing into any conversation?
Marianne
‘P. S. In our house, we are Patrick O’Brian addicts…
Well, I think you might keelhaul a pirate on a carrier once
If not keelhauling, I would hope that our ships/boats still have yardarms and rope.
Truth to tell, I’ve heard about the O’Brian books for a few years, and looked at one or two, but they just didn’t excite me. Then one weekend earlier this year I actually read one and, as the saying goes, I was hooked. Picked up the last two out of the series of twenty (not counting the unfinished manuscript book) today. Great reading and educational. Still do not understand all that darned nautical language though!
Regards