The Study Of Sea Power Development Under The Strategy Of Peaceful Development Of China

Sea Power Theory was proposed by Mahan, who is an American Navalstrategist at the end of the19th century. He thought sea power is not the onlydetermining factor of success or failure of the great countries all over the world, butalso the significant cause of historical changes. Sea Power Theory has caused greatattention in western societies at the earliest. These countries increased the control anduse of ocean. At the same time, the world’s great powers were seeking maritime power,making colonial aggression and expanding interests. Thus, the ambition of dominatingthe sea leads to the conflict and vicissitude among the western powers.Even though there is a brilliant feat made by Zheng He in the history of thedevelopment of China Sea Power, the purpose of Zheng He is just to make a show ofstrength of Ming dynasty with no expanding sea trade and the control of the ocean. Atthe end of Qing dynasty, the maritime-forbidden policy made China miss the bestopportunity for the development of sea power. However, the goals of Chinese peopletowards the sea still exist, and the dream of developing sea power and establishing apowerful navy did not die out. Nowadays, China is the second largest economiccountry all over the world with export-led export-oriented economy characteristicwhich increased our dependence on the ocean. The demands of defending maritimerights and protecting the interests of the overseas determine the requirements of thedevelopment of sea power, and build a “blue-water navy” to the ocean.The western scholars generally worry about the rapid expansion of sea powerdue to the development of China, and propose the negative tone of China’s maritimethreat. These western scholars think that China’s rise will lead to the transfer of globalpower among the power countries all over the world, especially between China andthe United States. In particular, the United States as a powerful country, starting fromthe goal of maintenance and consolidate hegemony, in recent years stepped up thecenter of gravity for the strategic to the east and containing China. For China, theexisting international system can be beneficial to the development of our economyand national power, while in the aspects of international division of labor andprovision of public goods is still in the downstream. Besides, the development ofChina needs normative and orderly international system relying on the peace andstability in the external environment. China needs to build a new type of powerrelations with the world powers, like the United States to expand the commoninterests of both sides. During the process of the development of sea power, China needs to handle its own development and obtain the strategic trust. Thus, we shouldnot only develop the sea power, express the demands and determination to maintainthe ocean, and maintenance of legal, maritime rights and interests, but also be rationaland careful to avoid challenging the international community causing the sensitivenerve of the population. The development of sea power in China has its owncharacteristics with the localization of sea power. And not only the complexgeographical environment with land and sea, but also the complexity of land bordersecurity make us difficult to concentrate superior resources to expand maritime force.Therefore, the main strategic goal is maintenance of sea rights rather than fighting formarine power, more than the ocean hegemony. It also determines there is an essentialdifference between the non power characteristics of sea power in China, and theexpansionary sea power of western countries.The issues of the development of China Sea power should be placed in the"peaceful development strategy". Under this pattern, the development of sea powermust serve for the Chinese general strategy. If we just simply study how to developsea power, it will easily deviate from the track of peaceful development triggering anarms race of violence. From the strategic overall situation of peaceful development,we can have more macro, rational, and objective views on the nature problem of thedevelopment of China Sea power. This can be beneficial to deal with maritimeconflict and friction peacefully, expand the maritime strategic trust and pragmaticcooperation, conforming to the national strategic interests of sea power development.