China's Sea Dragons

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. 

 As part of an accelerated modernization  since Chinese President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012,  new amphibious ships and the specially trained marines they carry will boost Beijing’s firepower and political influence far from its shores.  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.  China began a rapid increase in the size of its marine force in 2017. 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. It was reformed in 1979.

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. Two army units trained in aerial assault had been transferred to a marines brigade dedicated to helicopter landings. 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. 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.

The 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.

Since 2005, China has also built a fleet of six Type 071 amphibious ships. These vessels can carry up to four air-cushion landing craft, similar to  hovercraft, as well as four or more helicopters, armored vehicles and troops on long-distance deployments. 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.

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. 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. Eventually, the PLA Navy could have seven or more of these ships, according to reports.

“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. “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.”

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.  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 has already deployed marines and their armored vehicles to its first overseas base at Djibouti on the Horn of Africa. Marines are also deployed on the flotillas China sends on naval anti-piracy missions to the Gulf of Aden, these reports said.

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.

“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.”

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. 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.

Despite this build-up, 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.

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.

https://uk.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/china-military-amphibious/