We learn ourselves from others — Chinese Navy's debut in 'RIMPAC-2014'

Here comes the Navy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLAN) to the "RIMPAC-2014"!

What Commander Nicholas Wiesel, medical officer of the Royal Canadian Navy, first felt was the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM): "It makes me feel fantastic to try the cupping therapy this time." The "Peace Ark" hospital ship of the PLAN hosted many naval medical officers from various countries on June 28, 2014. As a different medical idea, the cupping therapy is only an expression of a different culture in the "RIMPAC 2014" joint military exercise.

As commented by Chen Qi, researcher from Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy: "The PLAN's participation in the exercise bears a more symbolic meaning than a physical one." With alertness, candor, contact and precaution, the PLAN makes its way carefully to the "RIMPAC-2014" joint military exercise.

No more fear of "spying"

The Chinese naval taskforce composed of the guided missile destroyer "Haikou", guided missile frigate "Yueyang", the comprehensive supply ship "Qiandaohu", and the hospital ship "Peace Ark" departed from the military ports respectively in Sanya of south China's Hainan province and Zhoushan of east China's Zhejiang province at the noon of June 9, 2014.

According to Liang Yang, spokesman of the PLAN, China assigned the strongest line-up of naval fleet to the exercise — second to the US, the host country — including 4 surface warships, 2 helicopters, 1 diving team, and 1 special operation detachment, totaling 1,100-plus officers and men.

The Chinese naval taskforce conducted drills while sailing across the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and then the Western Pacific Ocean, having drawn a lot of attention.

As a maritime navigation route connecting the offshore of China and the Western Pacific Ocean, the Miyako Strait is located not far away from the disputed Diaoyu Islands between China and Japan. In recent years, whenever the Chinese naval fleet passed through the strait, it would make Japan feel like a fishbone getting stuck in its throat.

There was no exception this time. The Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) sent a "P-3C" anti-submarine patrol aircraft to spy the Chinese naval taskforce all the way.

In recent years, the PLAN has sped up the pace of equipment modernization, especially the "full-swing" progress in the field of surface warships, and a number of most advanced destroyers, frigates and guided missile vessels were built. Reputed as the "Chinese Aegis", the guided missile destroyer "Haikou" is presently the most advanced surface warship of the PLAN. Among the taskforce, the "Yueyang" frigate has entered into service for only one year. It has much advanced equipment though.

In terms of ship-borne weaponry, both the HQ-9 and HQ-16 equipped to the "Haikou" and "Yueyang" warships are the new-generation vertical-launching ship-to-air guided missiles. Prior to this, western countries had only seen the outer appearances of the launching devices without any direct experience to the weapon performance. In addition, the "Haikou" warship is equipped with the active phased-array radar (APAR), similar to the "Aegis" system of the U.S. Navy. If the western countries acquire the secrets of the phased-array radar, they will gain a deep knowledge of the air-defense capability of the Chinese fleet of surface warships.

This time, the PLAN is going to open its first-class warships to the world while confidently participating in the multi-national military exercise organized by the western countries.

The current rule of game is having conflicts and cooperation at the same time.

During the welcome ceremony at the dusk on June 28, 2014, the US Admiral Samuel Locklear leaned forward to hold Senior Captain Zhao Xiaogang's hand and asked: "Was everything fine with the voyage of the Chinese naval taskforce? Are you satisfied with various arrangements that the US side has made?"

A big show of "friendliness" was put on while "frequent incidents" have been happening in the China-US military relationship.

The US Ministry of Justice's prosecution of 5 officers of the PLA on account of "cyber spying" in May of this year caused such drastic discontent from the Chinese side that the activities of the China-US network work group rolled to a sudden stop. During the Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD) at the end of May, the US Secretary of Defense Hagel pointlessly accused China with regards to the issue of maritime disputes. On June 5, the Pentagon released the report on China's military power and criticized China's military non-transparency and overseas military expansion, causing strong protests from China's Ministries of National Defense (MND) and Foreign Affairs.

China evolves from an "imaginary enemy" of the exercise to a part of it. In recent years, both the US and China are adapting to this subversive role change.

"Such a grand-scaled RIMPAC military exercise shouldn't be void of China's participation," said Panetta, the then U.S. Secretary of Defense, when he visited China on September 19, 2012 and invited China to participate in the "RIMPAC 2014" joint military exercise for the first time. He held that a strong U.S.-China partnership and relationship is extremely crucial to the global security and prosperity in the 21st century. As long as the US and China make joint efforts to build a long-standing basis for the relationship between the two countries and the two militaries, the real security and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region will be fulfilled.

The website of Japan's The Diplomat magazine disclosed on August 8, 2012, that it was during the "RIMPAC 2012" joint military exercise that the US military was thinking about inviting China and Russia to participate in the joint military exercise. However, it was strongly objected to by Japan and other allied countries. At that time, the Pentagon was also having internal disagreement. The conservatives insisted that the sensitive military information might be revealed to China during the exercise.

Presently, China has an increasing tension in the relationship with the U.S.'s Asia-Pacific allies. China's respective relationships with Japan and Philippines are highly strung with regards to the territorial sovereignty and disputes of the Diaoyu Islands and the Huangyan Island. Despite the heated disputes, China was invited by the US to the joint military exercise this year, which was surprisingly accepted by Japan "generously", though it was once in strong objection to it. According to the news by the Kyodo News Agency of Japan on June 3, Katsutoshi Kawano, chief of staff of Japan's MSDF, said "welcome China to participate in, for the first time, the RIMPAC joint military exercise started on June 26".

"Speaking of the US-China relationship in fields of military politics and military technology, it should be pointed out that the US is presently situated in a complicated period and stuck in a series of sharp conflicts, the situation in Ukraine being one of them," said Yevstafyev, Russian political scientist and professor from Russia's Higher School of Economics. "The US feels like having several pots boiling at the same time. Given such a condition, the last thing that the Washington would want to see is to make China into an unfriendly strength," he added.

"The rule of game now is having conflicts and cooperation at the same time," said Ni Lexiong, a military expert. "China's participation manifests the fact that despite of some controversy, China will not let these disputes affect the overall relationship."

Nevertheless, Chen Qi, researcher from the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy, holds the idea that the US government has also intended deterrence in its invitation of the PLAN to the exercise. "Through displaying the US's capability to coordinate its allied countries to jointly participate in the military exercise, the most important purpose for this military exercise is to warn China not to alter the status quo."

Separately located on each side of the Pacific Ocean, the Chinese military and the US military are trying to work out a way of collective survival among clashes.