That will be huge.
Whatever else may be said, no one can question China's committment to its plans in the SCS.
China's SCS Strategy Thread
- Thread starter lilzz
- Start date
Whatever else may be said, no one can question China's committment to its plans in the SCS.
kwaigonegin
Colonel
I agree there.. The US are masters of international relations just like our politicians can steal candy from a baby with people's blessings lol.. The PRC has a lot to learn from that standpoint.
We even have catch phrases like America's Navy - A global force for good! And our navy even escorted Godzilla to fight mutos...trust me... All these things adds up and gives good perception to the world audience.
Just like in the movies or corporations you need a really good marketing arm. China needs a good marketing Dept in my opinion.
Last edited:
Brumby
Major
From today's :
Holy cow! So China might be building two artificial islands in the SCS. I'm skeptical of the claim that the Fiery Cross Reef island is going to be double the size of Diego Garcia because that would be one of the largest land reclamation projects in history, if I'm not mistaken. I don't think the surrounding reef is that big.
Here is a diagram of the proposed Chinese base at Johnson South Reef.
This potential development makes all the sense in the world for China if the strategic vision is to dominate the SCS. China has been making entries for the world's biggest in a range of things and so this would be just another addition. The physical location is at the centre of gravity in the SCS - a significant asset given that there are no immediate friendly port of calls for China and unlikely new friends in the horizon if the state of play continues. This will give China a giant size aircraft carrier just as the Midway island is to the US.
Blackstone
Brigadier
What happens to Collins Reef? Does China plan to evict Vietnam from that area? I mean I can't see PLAN allowing a foreign and potentially hostile force to be so close to one of its major naval bases.
joshuatree
Captain
Why can't they operate a new base right across the street from the Vietnamese? US has been doing that with the Cubans at Guantanamo.
What is that supposedly land link between the two reefs?
Been scrolling through these discussions but it seems that no one is focusing on something very important, China's PR towards her own citizens.
I think that when evaluating the degree of success of PR, one has to take into account the primary target audience. This is what good PR does, you first identify the target audience, then everything follows suit. In this case, clearly the target audience is not you and me, people living outside Chinese boarders or do no even speak Chinese at all.
The target audience is the 1.3 billion Chinese people.
I'm on vacation at home and I often hear lots and lots of discussion about this topic, I can honestly say that not only the Chinese people do not feel our government is at wrong, they support it and some even think that our government IS NOT DOING ENOUGH.
Years and years and years of PR and stuff made a significant portion of the population think that the whole SCS is our TERRITORIAL waters. And people know that territorial waters are not to be infringed, so by following that logic people feel the urge to just shoot these Vietnamese boats down using naval cannons, not larger fishing boats pushing and chasing them around.
Now folks, consider this, how will the Chinese people react upon seeing the way the Western media and Western government commenting on this? Coupled with decades of mistrust and centuries of hostility and memories of war and suffering and humiliation brought about by the West?
I think that when evaluating the degree of success of PR, one has to take into account the primary target audience. This is what good PR does, you first identify the target audience, then everything follows suit. In this case, clearly the target audience is not you and me, people living outside Chinese boarders or do no even speak Chinese at all.
The target audience is the 1.3 billion Chinese people.
I'm on vacation at home and I often hear lots and lots of discussion about this topic, I can honestly say that not only the Chinese people do not feel our government is at wrong, they support it and some even think that our government IS NOT DOING ENOUGH.
Years and years and years of PR and stuff made a significant portion of the population think that the whole SCS is our TERRITORIAL waters. And people know that territorial waters are not to be infringed, so by following that logic people feel the urge to just shoot these Vietnamese boats down using naval cannons, not larger fishing boats pushing and chasing them around.
Now folks, consider this, how will the Chinese people react upon seeing the way the Western media and Western government commenting on this? Coupled with decades of mistrust and centuries of hostility and memories of war and suffering and humiliation brought about by the West?
Indeed, China has a maritime vision and a long term plan for SCS. The giant oil rig deployed recently off Xisha/Paracel Islands is not a "provocation" to President Obama's recent Asia trip or taking advantage of the perceived American "weakness." It is not an opportunistic move after whatever happened at Crimea. The giant oil rig had long been under development and had been billed as a high-profile national project and pride. It is a not even a secret project and has always been known publicly that it will be deployed at SCS once completed. In fact, this oil rig is only one of the six giant pieces of equipment that form an end-to-end chain of oil discovery, exploration, drilling and transport.
For the longest time, the Chinese lamented that out of the hundreds or thousands of oil rigs in SCS, none of them belong to China, until now. Vietnam has control of 29 reef/islands/structures in Spratly Islands whereas China has only half a dozen. The Spratly Islands used to be too far from Chinese mainland. China could make all the empty claims about SCS, while other claimants simply drills and build. Now China has the hardware, resources, plan and most of all, the will to backup its claims.
China is currently building the world's largest Coast Guard fleet, a fleet of deep-sea oil drilling equipment, and appears to start deploying its second-to-none civil engineering skills to build artificial islands in the middle of SCS.
Blackstone
Brigadier
The South China Sea to China is the Caribbeans to the US, and by dominating it, China links the Western Pacific to the Indian Ocean and secures her SLOC to Africa and the Middle East. With the SCS in her pocket, China would also dominate, militarily and economically, NE and SE Asian commerce, which is overwhelmingly done over water. Just as the US became a maritime great power by first controlling the Caribbeans, China could be a maritime great power by dominating the SCS. It starts and ends with the South China Sea.
Brumby
Major
Does China need PR? I thought the main strategy is censorship and if it doesn't work there is always the education camps.
