Chinese Sea Power And Maritime Strategy Thinking

Seas not only greatly influence earth ecology, but also deeply affect human society. Since ancient times, seas known as the source of fish and salt have been providing human being with abundant food resources. In modern times, with exploitation of oil and gas as well as rise of modern mining industry in deep seas, seas prove to be a new hope of resources followed by land. In addition, being the shipping channel, seas fulfill the major function of transportation in the modern world in which trade is well developed. In the meantime, playing the role of strategic shields, seas are of paramount strategic significance for a nation. Therefore, those who control seas possess larger developing room, and thus scrambling for seas will be one of the key issues of international political struggles.The West has more direct and deeper understanding of seas owing to its history and unique geography. More importantly, thinkers of sea power represented by A.T. Mahan emerged in order to meet the requirement of its seas expansion since modern times. Western thoughts of sea power emphasize the command of the seas in order to guard its sea interests, obtain overseas interests and even to establish seas hegemony. Guided by the expansion thoughts of sea power, the U.K and the U.S.A became powerful seas nations in succession, whereby they laid their ideological foundations of seas hegemony. However, influenced by its tradition of"valuing land and belittling seas", China gradually lost its ascendancy in scrambling for seas in modern times and even had no defense on the seas which caused the seas invasion by great powers China had to encounter directly. The Chinese people began to accept the western thoughts of sea power after Opium War, but it was a sort of passive acceptance and an instinctive reaction to seas invasion, and thus China has never formed its independent thoughts of seas power.Since the 1990s, with the ongoing penetration of reform and opening-up and continuous development of economy, China's overseas business increasingly grew and thus international business had become the main impetus to China's economy development. On the other hand, China is getting increasingly dependent on overseas energy, since it turned from an export country of oil into an import country of oil in 1993. However, both overseas business and transportation of overseas energy are mainly realized through transportation on the seas. Meanwhile, the economy development demands more supply of energy and resources, whose major solution is to exploit energy and resources in the seas. Nevertheless, China has a variety of controversial issues about maritime space and islands with neighbor countries. In addition, the fact that China's mainland and Taiwan have not been reunified yet is also a potential threat to China's sea right. By and large, China's opening needs the seas; China's development depends on the seas; China's stability is in more need of the seas. Against this background, researches on sea power in China's academic circles spring up again with various views appearing in succession and influencing one another, thereby laying foundations of the formation of China's own theories of sea power.Exploring western thoughts of sea power and Chinese scholars'researches achievements on sea power in recent years, this thesis puts forwards the construction of sea strategies with Chinese characteristics in order to guard China's sea right. Firstly, lay the ideological foundations of sea strategies with Chinese characteristics by cultivating nationwide sea consciousness; secondly, sea strategies with Chinese characteristics must be in accordance with China's peaceful development, and therefore the core of which is the establishment of great nation of sea economy by exploiting the sea peacefully; last but not least, establishing feasible regulations and system is the basic safeguard to carry out the sea strategies with Chinese characteristics, which, specifically speaking, include the strategy of sea economy, the strategy of sea science and technology, the strategy of sea military affairs and the strategy of sea diplomacy...