(For more Reuters Special Reports, click on SPECIAL/ )
By David Lague
HONG KONG, July 20 (Reuters) - China launched its military
build-up in the mid-1990s with a top priority: keep the United
States at bay in any conflict by making the waters off the
Chinese coast a death trap. Now, China's People's Liberation
Army (PLA) is preparing to challenge American power further
afield.
China's shipyards have launched the PLA Navy's first two
Type 075 amphibious assault ships, which will form the spearhead
of an expeditionary force to play a role similar to that of the
U.S. Marine Corps. And like the Marines, the new force will be
self-contained - able to deploy solo with all its supporting
weapons to fight in distant conflicts or demonstrate Chinese
military power.
The 40,000-tonne Type 075 ships are a kind of small aircraft
carrier with accommodation for up to 900 troops and space for
heavy equipment and landing craft, according to Western military
experts who have studied satellite images and photographs of the
new vessels. They will carry up to 30 helicopters at first;
later they could carry fighter jets, if China can build short
take off and vertical landing aircraft like the U.S. F-35B.
The first Type 075 was launched last September and the
second in April, according to reports in China's official
military media. A third is under construction, according to the
May edition of a Congressional Research Service report.
Eventually, the PLA Navy could have seven or more of these
ships, according to reports in China's official military press.
Chinese military commentators quoted in official media say
China's shipyards are now building and launching amphibious
ships so rapidly it is like "dropping dumplings" into water.
The military rivalry between China and the United States is
only growing sharper. Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo declared most of Beijing's claims of sovereignty in the
South China Sea illegal, throwing Washington's weight behind the
rival claims of Southeast Asian nations over territory and
resources in the strategic waterway that were supported by
international law. China said the U.S. position raised tensions
in the region and undermined stability.
China's nascent amphibious forces still lag far behind those
of the United States, but the speed of China's military rise has
already shifted the balance of power in Asia. Over the past two
decades, China has deployed an arsenal of missiles and a massive
surface and sub-surface fleet to deter potential enemies from
sailing in its coastal waters. Now, as part of an accelerated
modernization of the PLA since Chinese President Xi Jinping came
to power in 2012, these new amphibious ships and the specially
trained marines they carry will boost Beijing's firepower and
political influence far from its shores, according to Chinese
and Western military analysts.
As shipyards churn out amphibious vessels, China is
expanding its force of marines under the command of the PLA
Navy. These troops are being trained and equipped to make
landings and fight their way ashore. China now has between
25,000 and 35,000 marines, according to U.S. and Japanese
military estimates. That's a sharp increase from about 10,000 in
2017.
"Without an amphibious force, any military force is greatly
constrained in where and how it can conduct operations," said
Grant Newsham, a retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel and
researcher at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies. Newsham
advised the Japanese military on the formation of Tokyo's own
Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade, formed in 2018. "Jets can
drop bombs and ships can fire missiles at the shore - but you
might need infantry to go ashore and kill the enemy and occupy
the ground."
China's Ministry of National Defense and the Pentagon did
not respond to questions from Reuters.
At home, too, the PLA marines have become an important tool
in the ruling Communist Party's efforts to showcase China's
increasingly powerful military to its domestic audience. The
state-controlled media regularly reports on the gruelling
training and military skills of the Jiaolong, or Sea Dragon
commandos - a unit from the marines special forces brigade based
on Hainan Island off southern China.
"We should be the point of the sword in joint operations to
strike terror into the heart of the enemy," said Gong Kaifeng, a
Jiaolong commandos company commander, in a report last year on
the unit's training broadcast on state television.
When the Type 075 ships enter service, China will have the
capacity to combine them with its other new amphibious and
support vessels, Chinese and foreign analysts say. These
self-contained fleets can be sent to distant conflicts, deployed
as a show of force to deter potential enemies or to protect
Chinese investments and citizens abroad. They would also allow
the PLA to provide disaster relief and humanitarian assistance,
competing with the U.S. for prestige and soft power.
INVADING TAIWAN
For Beijing, these amphibious forces will also contribute to
the PLA's mounting capacity to make a landing on Taiwan or seize
other strategically important or disputed territory in China's
offshore regions, according to specialists in amphibious
warfare.
Beijing regards self-governing Taiwan a province of China.
Xi Jinping has said unifying Taiwan with the mainland is a vital
step in realizing the Chinese people's dream of a powerful,
rejuvenated nation. In a key speech early last year calling on
Taiwan to open talks on peaceful reunification, Xi warned that
this long-standing dispute could not be deferred indefinitely.
"We make no promise to renounce the use of force and reserve the
option of taking all necessary means," Xi said.
China has this year stepped up military operations and
exercises around Taiwan, according to U.S. and Taiwanese
military analysts. PLA Air Force jets, including at least one
bomber and a fighter, briefly entered Taiwan's air defense
identification zone on June 22, before being warned off by the
Taiwanese air force, the island's military said. It was the
eighth such encounter in two weeks, the military said.
Taiwan launched its annual Han Kuang defense exercise on
July 13 with an emphasis on joint operations between land, sea
and air forces to defend the island from attack, according to
the island's military. The exercise also involved an expanded
role for reservists as the military strives to boost its
firepower, senior Taiwan government officials said.
"Our military is always working hard to prepare for war,
closely monitoring the dynamics of the Chinese Communist's
military and the development of the situation in the Taiwan
Strait," Taiwan's Defense Ministry said in response to questions
from Reuters. "We have a complete defense plan and appropriate
actions to deal with the threat of the Chinese Communists
attacking Taiwan and the seizure of offshore islands, which can
ensure national security."
Experts on amphibious forces note the PLA already has
powerful army units that are trained and equipped to make the
kind of landings necessary for an invasion of Taiwan. In
expanding the marines, they argue, PLA military planners are
looking at operations across the globe, in places where China
has extensive offshore investments. These commercial interests
are likely to multiply as Beijing presses ahead with its Belt
and Road Initiative, an ambitious bid to put China at the center
of global trading routes.
China's marines will also be important to man what is
expected to become a network of strategic military bases around
the world, including fortifications on territory Beijing has
seized in the South China Sea, according to Chinese and Western
military commentators.
Beijing has already deployed marines and their armored
vehicles to its first overseas base at Djibouti on the Horn of
Africa, according to Pentagon reports. Marines are also deployed
on the flotillas China sends on naval anti-piracy missions to
the Gulf of Aden, these reports said.
"We are currently only seeing the tip of the iceberg," said
Ian Easton, the senior director of the Project 2049 Institute,
an Arlington, Virginia-based security research group. "Ten years
from now, China is almost certainly going to have marine units
deployed at locations all over the world. The Chinese Communist
Party's ambitions are global. Its interests are global. It plans
to send military units wherever its global strategic interests
require."
Short of war, capable amphibious forces will also become a
powerful diplomatic or coercive tool for Beijing, military
analysts say. So far, Washington has had a monopoly on this type
of engagement with other governments, routinely sending marine
expeditionary units abroad for port visits, joint training
exercises and disaster relief.
U.S. expeditionary flotillas, packed with marines, all their
heavy equipment and air support, are a potent reminder of
American power. A raw demonstration came in the tense period in
1999 when an Australian-led United Nations peacekeeping force
intervened to stop violence in what was then
Indonesian-controlled East Timor. American forces didn't become
heavily involved on the ground. But the presence of the USS
Belleau Wood, a 40,000-tonne amphibious assault ship carrying
900 marines and heavy lift and attack helicopters, served as
formidable back-up as the UN troops restored order without any
significant resistance from Indonesia.
SEIZING ISLANDS
China's first two Type 075 amphibious assault vessels are
now berthed together undergoing final fit-out at a state-owned
Shanghai shipyard, China's official military media has reported.
Photographs in the official media and commercial satellite
images show that the 250-meter-long vessels appear similar to
flat-top amphibious assault ships in service with other advanced
navies, including the U.S. fleet. America currently has a fleet
of eight Wasp and two America-class amphibious assault vessels.
However, in a blow to U.S. efforts to blunt the challenge
from China, the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme
Richard caught fire on July 12 while tied up at its home port in
San Diego. The ship was extensively damaged in the fire which
burned for four days. It was unclear if the ship would be
salvaged, the U.S. Navy said.
Since 2005, China has also built a fleet of six Type 071
amphibious ships, according to a 2019 report from the U.S.
Defense Intelligence Agency. These vessels can carry up to four
air-cushion landing craft, similar to the hovercraft carried on
U.S. amphibious landing ships, as well as four or more
helicopters, armored vehicles and troops on long-distance
deployments, the report said. A seventh Type 071 is under
construction, according to Western military analysts.
China's official shipbuilding industry journals have
reported the 29,000-tonne Type 071 has command and control
capabilities, a medical unit and accommodation for hundreds of
marines. The 210-meter long vessel has a range of 10,000
nautical miles and reached a speed of 25 knots in trials, these
reports said.
To build the force that will embark on these ships, China
began a rapid increase in the size of its marine force in 2017,
according to Pentagon reports. Earlier, marines had been a low
priority in the decades when China's military built a massive
ground force to defend the mainland. A regiment of marines was
formed in 1953 and expanded to a division but then disbanded in
1957, according to an official timeline of major events in PLA
history. It was reformed in 1979, the timeline shows.
The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency report said China's
marine force is now organized into seven brigades, each with
armor, infantry, artillery and missiles, and is the strongest
force of this type among the rival claimants to disputed
territories in the South China Sea. China's marines "can
simultaneously seize multiple islands in the Spratlys," the
report said, referring to a contested group of islands and reefs
in the South China Sea. They could also rapidly reinforce
China's outposts in the Paracel Islands, another disputed
territory in the same waterway. China does not publish detailed
accounts of the disposition of its forces.
Amphibious warfare specialists say these marines would also
be useful for seizing other disputed territory, including the
uninhabited group of isles in the East China Sea that are
claimed by both Tokyo and Beijing - known as the Senkaku islands
in Japan and the Diaoyu islands in China.
Selected army units are being transferred to the marines to
boost the force's capability, according to reports in the
official Chinese military media and Western defense analysts.
China's official military newspaper, the PLA Daily, reported in
April that two army units trained in aerial assault had been
transferred to a marines brigade dedicated to helicopter
landings.
The Pentagon's annual report on Chinese military power in
2018 revealed that a newly established headquarters under the
command of the navy was responsible for staffing, training and
equipping the expanding force. And, the report said, a new
commander had been appointed to lead the marines. China's
state-controlled media has identified him as Major General Kong
Jun, a former army officer who transferred to the marines in
early 2017.
Despite this build-up, the Pentagon and other Western
military experts argue the PLA marines remain far less capable
than the 186,000-strong U.S. Marine Corps, with its extensive
experience of amphibious and land operations.
In its 2019 report on China's military power, the Pentagon
said most of the new PLA marines brigades were not yet manned
and equipped to be fully operational. It said China's marines
lacked sufficient armored vehicles, helicopters and training to
conduct complex amphibious operations.
Some Western military experts suggest one reason for this:
The top priorities for the PLA brass are the army amphibious
units and air force airborne troops that would spearhead an
attack on Taiwan. So, the marines "don't have priority when it
comes to things like amphibious tanks and helicopters," said
Easton of the Project 2049 Institute, who has written a book,
The Chinese Invasion Threat, on the PLA's preparations to
conquer Taiwan.
The ruling Communist Party has long wanted control of Taiwan
for political reasons. The island also has huge strategic
importance. It would give the PLA a key foothold in the
so-called first island chain, the string of islands that run
from the Japanese archipelago through Taiwan, the Philippines
and on to Borneo, enclosing China's coastal seas. From bases on
Taiwan, Chinese warships, strike aircraft and missiles would
dominate the sea lanes vital to Japan and South Korea. And
Taiwan would be an ideal jump-off point for operations aimed at
seizing further territory in the island chain.
Newsham, the retired U.S. Marine colonel, said the PLA had
assembled a formidable army amphibious force and sufficient
ships, military and civilian, to probably land enough troops on
Taiwan as part of a full-scale attack that includes air,
missile, naval and cyber assaults. "The PLA already has a lot
lined up," he said.
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