China's Strategy Has The World's Largest Navy

JAKARTA - China is currently said to have the largest navy in the world with 340 warships. This is evidenced in recent years that China has launched large guided-missile destroyers, amphibious assault ships, and aircraft carriers with the ability to operate in the open ocean and project the strength of thousands of miles from Beijing.

To maintain global reach, the Navy, known as the People's Liberation Army, certainly really needs a place for these ships to refuel and refuel away from their home country.

A new analysis from the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracys (FDD) think tank said Beijing's growing push towards port access included helping build naval bases in Cambodia and looking for other potential locations for military posts to the Atlantic coast of Africa.

This is reinforced by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) facilities in countries such as Argentina, FDD reports, and Cuba, which can do anything ranging from monitoring space and tracking satellites to eavesdropping on communications from Western countries.

Experts say these efforts aim to increase the reach of the Chinese military, which currently only includes one foreign naval base operating in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa.

Reporting from CNN, China is adamant that the base in Djibouti supports its anti-piracy mission and humanity in Africa and West Asia. However, the FDD has gathered intelligence sources and open reports to support its conclusion that China is building more naval outposts, including satellite imagery showing remarkable developments from the Ream Naval Base, which is located on a short peninsula ejecting from Cambodia's west coast to the Gulf of Thailand.

PLA's growing global footprint and its ability to carry out broader missions, including limited wars, poses a great risk to the United States and its allies in the Indo-Pacific as well as other operational areas, the report said.

A recent study conducted by AidData, a research laboratory at William & Mary University in Virginia, observed that Beijing could build a new naval base from a financial point of view, focusing on ports and infrastructure projects that have generated a lot of money from China between 2000 and 2021.

"Although our data is incomplete and definitive, we suggest a list of port locations where China has invested significant resources and maintained ties with local elites that may benefit future naval bases," said AidData.

The top list is Hambalto, Sri Lanka, followed by Bata, Equatorial Guinea; Gwadar, Pakistan; Kribi, Cameroon; Ream in Cambodia; Vanuatu in the South Pacific; Nacala, Mozambique; and Nouakchott, Mauritania.

Hamantota's commercial port in Sri Lanka has long been considered a prime candidate for China's naval base.

Beijing took control of the port in 2017, when a Chinese state-owned company signed a 99-year lease with Colombo to run the facility after Sri Lanka was unable to repay the Chinese loan that built the port.

Naval cooperation was strengthened in 2018, when China gave the Sri Lankan Navy the Type 553 frigate as a gift, not foreign military sales," said AidData.

Equatorial Guinea appearing second on the list is nothing surprising. US military leaders warned more than once a year ago that Beijing was taking action there.

Army general Stephen J. Townsend, commander of US Command in Africa, said at a US House of Representatives session in March 2022 that China was actively seeking military naval bases on Africa's west coast that could threaten US national security.

"The thing I think I'm most worried about is the military base on the Atlantic beach, and the place they're most interested in right now is in Equatorial Guinea," Townsend said.