Ask anything Thread

[Biscuits]

The news of six (or four) Chinese warships in the Medditerranean Sea is fake news. Apparently, the news source was from

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which got picked up from various media outlets like

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and now is making it's round in social media. All that is known is the former 44th anti-piracy task force just wrapped up it's joint exercise with Oman and left presumably back home. It's understandable that the Muslim world wants China to be more active in the Middle East region to kick out the US. However, I wouldn't call it glorification, it's more in line with hope.

They were not in the Mediterranean, but there are on a semi permanent basis 4-6 ships in the west Indian ocean.

The truth is, why should China make big moves now, when the overall setting is going exactly as planned? 4 years ago, China was wrestling US over control on Iraq. 2 years ago, China was wrestling US over control on Saudis. Nowadays, Saudi and Iraq are fait accompli, and now US has to send troops to deal with a situation in Israel.

The whole story is a tale of progressively moving the front forward.

China follows practical geopolitics. They will "save" Palestine only if it is the best course of action for Chinese influence in the ME. This may come to pass if Israel becomes irredeemable for China.

But otherwise, there are other options which also let China advance the front that doesn't involve killing IDF. China could as well allow a quagmire to take place, tire out the right wing Israeli government and then make a new deal with the opposition, whereupon the terrorism inflicted on Palestine can be forgotten in exchange for alignment, like how the terrorism of Saudis in Yemen was forgotten.

 

[Ex0]

I don't know, but I feel that I can't believe that China has only 3 ships in the Indian Ocean. I think that the Anti Piracy Task Force is not the only elements that PLAN has there. Because in this forum, I notice that there was a Type 71 LPD docked in somewhere (there is a September Satellite photo about that in this forum. I think in China's Foreign Base thread). So perhaps they have more than what we know. There should be a permanent / semi permanent PLAN elements there.

What other assets do you think China has? It won't be able to hide if it has more. They will be tracked and need to dock and resupply, and they are all going to Djibouti base basically. They might have some nuclear subs out and about but other than that, what else could they have that wouldn't be seen and reported on by global media? China itself declared and reports on them so they would have to be clandestine deployments, which other than nuclear subs, I don't see how they can remain secret in this day and age.

Apart from anti piracy goals, the other goals are practical blue water experience/long deployment, and flexing as a global blue water capable navy, and conditioning the world to accept and be more comfortable with global Chinese deployments in preparation to open more overseas bases and deployments in future. Or test the waters initially to how receptive the world is on global Chinese doloumemts and overseas bases which djibouti and anti piracy missions was part of.

If middle east is now asking or hoping for Chinese deployments or interventions, then you can maybe see Chinese bases open up in middle east or elsewhere in future. But as for current situation i don't see China getting involved directly, or even indirectly. It has no benefits to China and only downsides. Same like Ukraine war or any other war that has nothing to do with China and doesn't really affect Chinese interests enough for China to intervene. No war would affect Chinese interests enough except like if Malacca straits is closed or SCS trade is affected etc.

 

[ClaudeJ]

Hey there,
is there a Chinese equivalent to Rosoboronexport?

 

[_killuminati_]

Any update on rail-mobile DF-41?

Hi, does anyone has the full version of this paper?

View attachment 119637

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[Stryker]

Hi guys, I was an active member a few months ago but got caught up with work and life in general.
Could anyone be kind enough to tell me who yankeesama is and where can I watch him with English subs please?

 

[Fuehrer]

Why can't china be able to have a naval base on the Kuril islands which can allow it threaten Japan and have free access to the Pacific ocean

 

[gelgoog]

Why can't china be able to have a naval base on the Kuril islands which can allow it threaten Japan and have free access to the Pacific ocean

And this would be better than existing bases how exactly? There isn't a direct maritime access from China's mainland to the Kurils without passing through the narrow straits between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

 

[Fuehrer]

And this would be better than existing bases how exactly? There isn't a direct maritime access from China's mainland to the Kurils without passing through the narrow straits between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

Then what is the use of having north Korea as an ally if china can't even use it's territory

 

[Ex0]

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Then what is the use of having north Korea as an ally if china can't even use it's territory

Obvious benefit is a non us puppet buffer zone.

And imo, in times of war, China will obviously have access to NK territories. Otherwise how else will china help to defend nk?

But I get your point. I don't know why China doesn't have closer ties with NK or use its territory to do more military things. Like have port access or missile shield or stuff like that. I guess it's a hold over from different times where china was still more concerned with portraying image of non interference and no military bases or even "logistics" bases or whatever they are calling bases like Djibouti and other now. Maybe the benefits of access to NK itself is not enough or marginal for what NK is asking China to pay, since nothing is free. And china probably thinks NK can handle it's own affairs and if needed, China can easily rush to help defend nk, even if nk is destroyed by the time China gets there like last time. That's NK own decision i guess, who knows what NK is thinking. Maybe they pride themselves on no foreign military bases and the Kim family needs that pride for them to stay in power..

I'm guessing China also does not like such hereditary rule as a socialist country who ended imperial hereditary rule itself, so just like with Russia, the relationship is complicated to say the least. In the end nk is probably not that important compared to Russia, and NKs biggest worth is it's geography and it's function as a non us bloc, pro china anti USA buffer state. But at the same time that also has its disadvantages, since Korea is not united and is a powder keg on China's doorstep.

 

[ACuriousPLAFan]

Why can't china be able to have a naval base on the Kuril islands which can allow it threaten Japan and have free access to the Pacific ocean

The Kuril Islands belong to Russia, not China. If China wants to have a military base there, Beijing must gain permission from Moscow in order to do so.

Besides, China is already fully capable of posing credible threats against mainland Japan from northeastern China, and against the Ryukyus from eastern China. Why would China even need to threaten Japan from the Kurils direction, especially the Russian military is already doing the lifting there?

Moreover, the Kurils is quite far from northeastern China, which is part of a wider region in Russia (the Russian Far East) that is sparsely populated, desolate with very poor land and sea transportation infrastructures. Such condition is not conductive for military logistics.

Furthermore, free access to the Pacific Ocean means nothing if there are only minimal means to keep the access open in face of adamant adversity. And the Kurils is too far from China to enable that.

Then what is the use of having north Korea as an ally if china can't even use it's territory

China is a very important ally of North Korea and Russia, but both of them are not servants to China like how South Korea and Japan are to the US. That's the key distinction.