Patriotic residents are flocking to the former British outpost’s harbour to catch a glimpse of China’s first air craft carrier — a symbol of Beijing’s military ambitions
HONG KONG — Patriotic residents of this former British territory have been agog these past few days over the arrival of China’s first aircraft carrier.
The Liaoning anchored last Friday near the Disneyland Resort on the western approach to one of the world’s most dynamic ports.
Security experts regard the vessel, which has been painted a pale blue, as a symbol of Beijing’s military ambition. It underscores China’s intention to dominate the South China Sea and East China Sea and establish a persistent blue-water naval presence in the western Pacific and, eventually, the Indian Ocean.
About 2,000 Hong King residents, and nearly that many dignitaries, appeared in local television reports to be spellbound after touring the ship over the weekend during a port visit timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Britain’s handover of the territory to Beijing.
Although visitors were allowed to snap pictures with their cellphones, cameras were not permitted. The eight Chinese-made J-15 fighter jets on display had their radars and engines hidden from public view.
Nevertheless, the “charm offensive” by the People’s Liberation Army Navy, which ended Tuesday morning, was considered a triumph by the South China Morning Post and has dominated the Chinese and English media here for days.
Many young people in Hong Kong famously want nothing to do with China and its communist government. Still, there has been such genuine enthusiasm over the Liaoning’s presence that thousands of people who were unable to snag tickets to tour the ship crowded the few vantage points from which it was possible to get a good look at it from land, or purchased ferry tickets to Discovery Bay for the thrill of passing a few hundred metres from it.
Not that the media in Mainland China or in Hong Kong have mentioned it, but the Liaoning is actually a 29-year-old former Soviet navy ship
Not that the media in Mainland China or in Hong Kong have mentioned it, but the Liaoning is actually a 29-year-old former Soviet navy ship with a colourful history since its 1998 purchase from Ukraine for $20 million. The idea at the time, or so China claimed, was to turn it into a floating hotel and casino in Macau.
Getting the Liaoning to China involved an epic 28,000 kilometre journey that saw it towed from the Black Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar, across the South Atlantic, around the Cape of Good Hope and across the Indian Ocean to China, where it took a shipyard six years to make it seaworthy again. It was only in 2011 that China admitted that the Liaoning was actually going to be part of the People’s Liberation Army Navy.
Beijing continues to insist that the vessel is only intended for training and research purposes. Nevertheless, after four years of sea trials the ship was declared “combat-ready” last December and made its first operational cruise in the East China Sea accompanied by seven other warships. In a demonstration of the kind of gunboat diplomacy and power-projection that American flattops have carried out in the Pacific and the Middle East for decades, the Liaoning conducted its first live-fire exercise last week near Taiwan on its way to Hong Kong.
It may not often feel like it often these days in Asia but the U. S. continues to hold a huge military advantage over China. America has put 69 aircraft carriers to sea and deploys 10 straight-deck carriers today. Each of these 107,000-tonne nuclear-powered behemoths can carry up to 90 warplanes, compared to the roughly 40 supported by the much smaller, ski-jump decked, steam turbine-powered Chinese carrier.
So it is easy for an outsider to be amused by Hong Kong’s infatuation with the Liaoning. But the iconic nature of a Chinese aircraft carrier in Hong Kong is inescapable. American carriers have visited Hong Kong many times without causing this kind of stir.
China is not the only country using euphemisms to describe its navy. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force has just commissioned its second aircraft carrier, but it doesn’ t call them aircraft carriers. They are referred to instead as “helicopter destroyers, ” though they are much larger than previous ships described that way. If required they can carry several dozen American vertical-takeoff aircraft capable of carrying bombs and missiles.
The Chinese and Japanese naval buildups are part of an arms race in Asia. Vietnam and India are building new warships and submarines, too.
How is America responding? With an eye on North Korea’s ballistic missile programme as well as the Chinese navy, the U. S. had two aircraft carriers — the Reagan and the Vinson — in the western Pacific last month. A few days ago the Pentagon sent a destroyer to sail near the Paracel Islands, which are claimed by China and Vietnam. As the Liaoning visited Hong Kong, two U. S. Air Force supersonic strategic bombers streaked across the South China Sea.
Still, it is an open question how much longer the U. S. will be easily able to conduct such freedom-of-navigation cruises and overflights of one of the world’s busiest, and therefore most strategic, shipping lanes. Beijing is putting fighter jets and missiles on artificial islands it has built on sand bars and reefs far out into the South China Sea, the hotly disputed subject of overlapping claims by China and five other Asian countries.
China’s second aircraft carrier, the Shandong, which is based on the Liaoning’s Soviet design, went to sea for first time in April. A third carrier, entirely of Chinese design, is under construction.
The presence of the Liaoning in Hong Kong is warning not only to the U. S. Navy but to China’s neighbours, all of whom are wondering how long it may take for Beijing to turn the South China Sea into a Chinese lake.
