• Tweeter

  • republish

Surrounded by oceanic jungles, the Muslim-born eunuch Zheng He, admiral of the Great Fleet of Ming during the Yongle era, in the fifteenth century. RFI / Baptiste Condominas

Rfi.fr and Asialyst.com, the Asia-wide news site, are embarking on a new series on the emergence of China as a maritime and naval superpower. The Middle Kingdom is present today on all the seas of the globe.

China is not only the second largest economy in the world. Recently, it is also the second largest naval force in the world in tonnage, that is to say in the volume of warships. Admittedly, she is still far behind the United States, whose navy weighs twice as much. But she went to Russia.

The PRC, new maritime power, really? Not quite. In the fifteenth century, a Chinese explorer as important as Vasco de Gama and Fernand de Magellan already led expeditions far in the high seas, from Southeast Asia to the coast of Africa through the Middle East. Long before Columbus.

His mission: to export the splendor of the Ming Dynasty. His name, Zheng He, has become a myth today recovered by the propaganda of Beijing. Whey for Xi Jinping and his "Chinese dream": this is the admiral symbol of this "China Millennium", present on the water and proud of its rising power.

The lesson of a "century of humiliation"

In the meantime, the Middle Kingdom has retreated to its continent. But he tried again all the same in international maritime competition, in the second half of the nineteenth century. Except that in 1894 he lived "the mother of humiliation" against Japan, and his flagship, the modernized Beiyang fleet, was destroyed.

Following the naval battle of the Yalu River, China lost its dominating position in Asia for the benefit of a rising Japan. The sea, a little story in the big? Not so much: the Silk Roads themselves have always traveled by sea. As proof: the Austronesians.

Nearly 125 years after the defeat of the Beiyang fleet, the plague is always gaping. But Beijing prides itself on having learned the lesson of the "century of humiliation": to have an impressive arsenal is not enough. It requires discipline, organization and above all, the end of corruption. By the way!

How do the Chinese weave their web?

In this year 2019, the People's Republic of China celebrates its 70th birthday. Upstream, she had to rethink her whole relationship with the high seas, in the open sea, to make it a constituent element of her identity. In time, the Confucian advisors surrounding the emperors were not necessarily excited by the idea.

How do the current Chinese, those traders of the seas who dream of weaving their web on all the oceans, operate this brilliant return to the sources? How do they use all means - trawlers, anti-piracy, oil prospecting, tourism - to expand their maritime zone of influence?

This is the subject of this first part, entitled "Maritime and naval China, from yesterday to today". The introductory act of our new long-running series on China on the high seas, to be found on Asialyst.com in the coming months, in partnership with the website of RFI . In the meantime, here are our first seven articles.

Part I: "Maritime and naval China, from yesterday to today"

► (1/7) The adventures of Zheng He

► (2/7) Before Zheng He, the Austronesians at the helm

► (3/7) The defeat against Japan

► (4/7) The Navy now at the heart of the power

► (5/7) When Beijing fights against piracy

► (6/7) Fishing and prospecting, the outpost of power

► (7/7) Chinese tourists on all oceans