China uses ports to protect trade lanes
This report is a concern to the United States Military Authorities as it will share its dominance of the control of the sealanes with another up and coming superpower like China.
A port being built in southern Sri Lanka near the main shipping route across the Indian Ocean is part of a Chinese effort to project influence and protect vital trade lanes, according to a US military study, Asia Pulse reported.
The study lists the commercial-shipping container port at Hambantota being built by Chinese contractors as part of China's so-called "string of pearls" strategy to gain political influence and be able to project power in the Indian Ocean region.
It lists China as the main emerging nation-state threat that US forces could confront in a future conflict, along with potential threats from Russia, the Middle East and other places in Asia.
Other facilities listed in the report are Pakistan's Gwadar port, near the mouth of the Persian Gulf, as a naval base and surveillance facility, and the Woody Island airfield in the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea.
These are listed as being useful to China as part of the Chinese shipping-lane-protection strategy.
The US military report identifies China as the most significant potential threat for the American military in the future.
The paper said the report discloses new details of what it describes as Beijing's efforts to build political influence and military power along the strategic oil-shipping route from the Middle East to China, a so-called "string of pearls" strategy.
"China is conducting cooperation with some Asian countries in various fields including ports development, but it's justifiable business for China and the joint ventures are for commercial purposes only," A spokesman was quoted as saying.
"People should see China's activities with a sensible and more balanced approach. As facts have proven, China's activities are for mutual benefit and peaceful purposes, constituting no threat to anyone else."
Construction work on the port in Hambantota is ahead of schedule.
It is being built mainly with a Chinese loan and by two Chinese construction firms. It would be interesting to look at the terms and conditions of the loan as it would throw some light to any hidden agenda that China may have in its effort to have control of important sealanes between the oil producing nation in the Middle East and their homeland.
It is envisaged first as a bunkering facility and later a port for general cargo vessels and eventually to tranship containers. When one envisaged a port as a bunkering facility it is a way of saying that the port would be a base for them to operate from when political situation demands it.
Hambantota was chosen as the site for the new port because of its proximity to the main shipping lane across the Indian Ocean.
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