Wednesday, August 10, 2011

China, Blue Water and Its Carrier

China launched its first carrier today. The first of most likely a half dozen, enough to crowd the US out of the Pacific. As the People's Daily states:


China's first aircraft carrier, rebuilt from the imported steel platform "Varyag" from Ukraine, is scheduled to make its maiden voyage for a series of sea trial today. The official Xinhua news agency sent a flash early today that the huge carrier sets sail for a testing voyage on Wednesday. Recent pictures on a few Chinese websites show the Varyag, which has been refitted at a shipyard in northeastern China's Dalian port, has removed scaffolding used for construction. Late last month, a spokesperson from China’s defense ministry said that the aircraft carrier would be used for "scientific research and training". The brief information tells the huge vessel is on its way to the blue sea.

Earlier this month, more than 200 naval soldiers were seen forming ranks on the warship.
The Chinese Navy Command has appointed 50-year-old Li Xiaoyan, a senior colonel in the Chinese Navy, to command the ship, according to Chinese press reports. Three Navy officials were appointed deputy captains. Li, from northeast China's Jilin Province, was a member of the country's first warship academy class in 1987 mainly for aircraft carrier commanders and among the country's first group of commanders who could both pilot aircraft and sail warships. Cao Weidong, a researcher with the PLA Navy's Academic Research Institute, said the Varyag was a conventionally powered medium-sized carrier that would be equipped with Chinese engines, aircraft, radar and other hardware.

 Now it is worth looking at another article in the same paper:


China's rapid rise has exerted a profound and visible impact on the entire world. British philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote in "The Problem of China" in 1922, "All the world will be vitally affected by the development of Chinese affairs, which may well prove a decisive factor, for good or evil, during the next two centuries."  The world already knows that China adheres to the path of peaceful development. The country has left different impressions on the minds of different people, and more and more people are developing their own unique understanding of China.

The ad screen is close to certain screens rented by major Western news agencies and has been used to display promos for Chinese media, cities and brands over the past nearly 10 days. Placed at "the crossroads of the world," it serves as a window into China and its importance extends far beyond the scope of commercial ads. Undoubtedly, the main purpose of leasing the ad screen is to better introduce China to the world and to improve China's international image.

Now finally another article:

Late last month Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny stood in parliament late last month and openly criticized the Catholic Church over its role in the long running child abuse scandal. He accused the Vatican of interference in the affairs of a sovereign state. Enda Kenny said the Vatican displayed "dysfunction, disconnection, elitism, (and) narcissism." And then to top it all, he continued that "We're fed up with hearing about canon law. This is a Republic, it's about civil law." …

The remnant of the temporal power of the Church is now concentrated in the Vatican city and it still wields influence that is vastly disproportionate to its diminutive size. It names cardinals in other countries, its senior priests abroad have diplomatic protection and, we have it from the Irish PM that they can interfere in the affairs of sovereign states. … China's history has taken place outside the historical lands of Christianity and its experience is totally different. China can respect the decision of Europeans to allow the Vatican the kind of leeway it has in their countries.

It's the West's historical baggage and frankly its problem. But China is very much within its rights to question the power of the Vatican state to have sole authority in naming priests in faraway lands. The Pope, you see, is not just the Vicar of Rome, which is one of his titles. He is also a head of State, with soldiers who carry real guns, a diplomatic corps and a bank. Europeans may choose to see this as quaint, but China is questioning the principle of letting a foreign state dictate to another what happens on its own territory.

The Church is an admirable institution which brings spiritual comfort to hundreds of millions of people throughout the world, but it is also a pragmatic one and has adapted and changed itself sometimes beyond recognition over the centuries. It must recognize that China cannot be expected to adhere unquestioningly to culturally alien rules that it never participated in creating, let alone ones which actually weaken the Church rather than strengthen it.Why can't the Chinese pick their own bishops, ideally without the interference of any state, whether local or foreign? Excommunicating them was a medieval tool that has no place in 2011 in China or anywhere. 


Consider these three stories. First the expansion of the Blue Water Fleet, a clear move to control the Pacific. Second, a promotional move to show how peaceful the intentions of China are. Third, the battle with Rome, a battle reminiscent of Henry VIII, where China will allow a Catholic Bishop, yet it must be a bishop of its own choosing. In many ways it is also the Gallic Church, but with conflict. Yet the Pope having an army, well the Swiss Guards hardly are a match for that aircraft carrier or the few million PLA troops.