Sanya Naval Base

Location of Sanya in the extreme south of the Chinese island of Hainan

The Sanya Naval Base is a naval base of the People's Republic of China in the south of the island of Hainan . It is east of the city of Sanya and south of the city of Yulin.

Expansion to a large base

Hainan Island is the headquarters of the Chinese Southern Fleet of the Navy of the People's Republic of China .

The construction activities of the naval base in the western world have been known since 2001. At the end of April 2008, the British trade journal “ Jane's Intelligence Review ” published for the first time detailed satellite images of the huge facility, created by the commercial provider DigitalGlobe , near major international waterways .

Two 950 meter long piers and three smaller ones are therefore sufficient for two aircraft carrier formations or amphibious assault ships . The extent of the work suggests that the base should become a central hub for future Chinese aircraft carriers, reported "Jane's". In 2012, China put its first aircraft carrier, Liaoning, into service. It is projected that China will have two self-built, conventionally powered STOBAR aircraft carriers by 2020 and nuclear-powered CATOBAR aircraft carriers by 2030 , which could then be stationed in Sanya as a base for operations in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean .

The height of the mostly underground harbor, built into the mountainous terrain, is estimated at around 20 meters. In total, there will be eleven 18-meter-high entry tunnels that lead below the water surface into the soil of the island. According to speculation by the US military, it can protect up to 20 nuclear submarines from being spied on by satellites in its bunkers .

The Department of Defense estimates that by 2010 China five nuclear submarines from Type 094 ( Jin class ) who is ready, each of which twelve JL-2 intercontinental ballistic missiles can carry.

The media spoke of a "significant challenge to the supremacy of the US Navy and the countries bordering the South China Sea ". According to US analyzes, the expanded base was largely operational in the course of 2010.

Hainan

China's largest electronic intelligence complex is also located on Hainan . Numerous experts are therefore stationed on Hainan who deal with the C4ISR concepts of the US military.

In September 2007, Chinese state media reported that there were plans to build a spaceport on Hainan, the Wenchang Cosmodrome .

Hainan has been a target of American awareness campaigns for years. On April 1, 2001, a US reconnaissance aircraft of the type EP 3E-Aries II collided with a Chinese Shenyang J-8 (also: F-8) interceptor during a routine surveillance of the Chinese navy , causing a crisis that lasted for weeks out.

reviews

The intended expansion of the permanent operation room of the PLAN according to the "China Report 2006" of the US Department of Defense, with the most important sea routes for East Asia. Whether the orientation towards the island chains of the West Pacific is a US projection or actually corresponds to the Chinese strategy remains to be seen.

For the People's Republic itself, waterways and sea routes in the greater East Asian area are of vital importance. More than half of the world's total maritime trade is transacted through Malakka Strait , Sunda Strait and Lombok Strait . "80 percent of Japanese and 60 percent of Chinese oil imports pass through this bottleneck, with the volume growing rapidly in the case of the People's Republic of China."

Hainan offers the opportunity to have a direct impact on this region. “The sea quickly becomes 5,000 meters deep off Hainan. The submarines can therefore dive deep quickly and protect themselves from being discovered. The jetties offer plenty of space, even for large surface units such as destroyers and frigates . China wants to create a submarine base in the south in order to improve its operations in the Pacific and Southeast Asian waterways, ”said the journalist and armaments expert Otfried Nassauer in an interview. The location and spread of the Chinese bases lead some to speak of Beijing's “pearl necklace strategy”.

In Chittagong ( Bangladesh ), for example, China has a large container port ; In Gwadar (Pakistan) a naval base has been built for some time with the help of 500 Chinese engineers - its location only 400 kilometers east of the Strait of Hormuz and as a possible end point of one or even more pipelines gives it a central role in securing energy supplies from the Middle East and Central Asia to the Middle Kingdom. However, the US government fears that Beijing's ambitions go well beyond the region, has doubts about the official figures for Beijing's defense spending, and suspects they may be far higher than admitted.

In the words of Kerry Brown , China expert at the British Royal Institute of International Affairs who develop China's armed forces , a strategy "sea denial campaign" called ( for example: campaign to refuse to sea access) that a military intervention with the United States in conflicts Taiwan is supposed to prevent.

China already has a similar, albeit much smaller, underground base in Jianggezhuang , where (previously conventionally powered) submarines with nuclear missiles are also stationed. According to the observations, the system on Hainan could be equipped with a “de-magnetization system”. It can be used to partially neutralize permanent magnetic fields of a submarine, which would make it more difficult for enemy sensors to locate. “The naval base is apparently intended to enable China to send its warships and submarines further out to sea than before,” said the “Spiegel” correspondent in Beijing, Andreas Lorenz: “The 'impressive progress' in the conventional equipment has meanwhile not only "changed the balance of power on the Taiwan Strait in favor of China," he quoted the Taiwanese arms expert Andrew Yang as saying. 'He has also enabled China to expand its power into the Western Pacific.' "

literature

• Robert D. Kaplan: Center Stage for the Twenty-first Century. Power Plays in the Indian Ocean. In: Foreign Affairs , March / April 2009
• Marc Lanteigne: China's Maritime Security and the “Malacca Dilemma” . In: Asian Security, Volume 4, Issue 2, May 2008, pp. 143–161 ( abstract: [1] )
• Andrew S. Erickson: New US Maritime Strategy: Initial Chinese Responses. In: China Security, Vol. 3 No. 4 Autumn 2007, pp. 40-61 - World Security Institute. Online: [2] (PDF, 22 p., 410 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hu Jintao inspects marines in Hainan ( Xinhua , April 11, 2008)
2. ↑ Tom Chesshyre: Heard of Hainan? You will, you will ... (Times Online, Aug 31, 2005)
3. ^ Secret Sanya - China's new nuclear naval base revealed. In: Jane’s , April 21, 2008 ( online )
4. ^ Secret base for nuclear submarines discovered. In: Der Spiegel , May 2, 2008 ( online )
5. ↑ Felix F. Seidler: Maritime Power Shifts in the Indo-Pacific Area: Geopolitical and Strategic Trends, p. 5. (PDF; 590 kB) (No longer available online.) Institute for Security Policy CAU Kiel , archived from the original on August 22, 2013 ; Retrieved February 1, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ^ Thomas Harding: Chinese nuclear submarine base. In: Daily Telegraph , May 2, 2008 ( online )
7. ↑ Map: Shipping Lanes and Strategic Passages in Pacific Asia - Photos on Flickr
8. ^ Xuegang Zhang: China's Energy Corridors in Southeast Asia. In: China Brief, Jamestown Foundation , Volume 8, Issue 3, January 31, 2008 ( online  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove it Note. )  
9. ^ South China Sea Oil Shipping Lanes. on Globalsecurity.org, quote: "More than half of the world's annual merchant fleet tonnage passes through the Straits of Malacca, Sunda, and Lombok, with the majority continuing on into the South China Sea. Tanker traffic through the Strait of Malacca leading into the South China Sea is more than three times greater than Suez Canal traffic, and well over five times more than the Panama Canal. "
10. ^ Berlin Information Center for Transatlantic Security : BITS employees
11. ↑ China's maritime armament: "Plenty of space for destroyers and frigates". In: Spiegel Online , May 5, 2008 ( online )
12. ↑ Alex Lantier: Iranian-Pakistani Talks on Gas Pipeline (WSWS, March 26, 2008)
13. ↑ Chinese nuclear submarines prompt 'new Cold War' warning ( Memento of May 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) ("Daily Telegraph", May 3, 2008)
14. ↑ Andreas Lorenz: Secret submarine base: China's navy pushes into the oceans (Spiegel Online, May 4, 2008)

Web links

• Ian Storey: The United States and ASEAN-China Relations: All Quiet on the Southeast Asian Front (Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College , November 2007 - PDF, 36 p., 233 kB)
• Sheng Lijun: China's Influence in Southeast Asia (Trends in Southeast Asia 4/2006, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore - PDF, 24 p., 209 kB)
• Robert D. Kaplan : How We Would Fight China ( The Atlantic Monthly , June 2005 - thesis: "The Middle East is just a blip. The American military contest with China in the Pacific will define the twenty-first century. And China will be a more formidable adversary than Russia ever was ")

Coordinates: 18 ° 12 ′ 25 ″  N , 109 ° 41 ′ 6 ″  E