China will showcase its rapidly growing naval power this week with a parade at sea aimed at signalling its strengths to rivals, building ties with other militaries and rallying patriotic feelings at home.
Touted by state media as the largest naval parade China has ever held, the show in waters off Qingdao on Tuesday is expected to feature the Type 55 destroyer, an important new addition to the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) surface fleet viewed as key to helping China rapidly narrow the gap between its naval capabilities and those of the US.
After more than two decades of growing military spending, China is transforming a navy once limited to coastal defence into a force capable of patrolling its near seas and venturing out into the high seas globally — two steps it considers vital for protecting its national interests, but which put it in conflict with the US, the military hegemon in the Pacific since the second world war.