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Beware! China's 1st Aircraft Carrier is arriving in 2014!
- Thread starter manokie
- Start date
Aircraft carriers will be sitting ducks soon enough. This is due to the array of smart precision long range missiles that are evolving. These stand off missiles can be launched from hundreds of miles away and can sink the costly aircraft carrier into scrap.
The Indian navy is also acquiring these soon to be useless ships , that are at best have sail past parade values during peace time operations.
serious?!
then what the f**king hell are they trying to do when they send NGOs to my place asking us for donations to sponsor their poors?!
As long as Taiwan stays non nuclear, she will be safe from the Chinese nuclear bombs.
Nothing is sure, of course. When China first obtained the nuclear capability in the 60's, that was the doctrine. And by the end of that decade they had perfected the means of delivery thus levelling the playing ground with the USA, the China Card came into play in American politic with Nixon paying a visit in 72 to urge the Chinese into kicking the Bear's arse. But China was smart enough not to join the American's camp and stayed the outsider amongst the big boys.
There could be a doctrinal change by as early as the mid 90's when a leaked PLA's paper by Chinese junior officers detailing how to nuke the US Seventh Fleet to kingdom come. This really made the Americans took notice and American was on the way to throttle China but 9/11 saved China for another occasion. While America is fighting the terror, China is busy building up to be a contender, though not yet the same stature as the USA but at least not a walkover as she was.
Also, China's nuclear arms are strategic and not tactical.
As long as the Chinese navy don't go roaming around the oceans, the US will still feel confident and comfortable dealing with and containing them as a regional issue, i.e. around Taiwan Straits, Yellow Sea and Japan Sea, at most South China Sea.
Despite much reduced in size from their glorious empire days' heights, the British Royal Navy is still the only other beside the US Navy that seriously roam the oceans. That's of course no issue for the US Navy, in fact, much welcome, since they act as support task forces.
The Russian and French navies still have that capibility but look strategically and objectively lost at the high seas. Roam around nowadays for what? Maintain some credible nuclear missile submarines lurking around for deterrent and some warships here and there for token presence their befitting their blue-water power status.
The entire North Atlantic from US east to Britain and North Pacific from US west coast to Japan are out of bounds to all navies except US, British, Candian and trusted allies since WW1; the defence article of faith of being unreachable to seaborne invasion. Britain has the riskiest geographical position and came within a close shave in WW2 with Dunkirk and Battle of Britain, but managed to fend off Germany. Yes, these are bullies, but class acts. They can enter your seas at will but you can't enter their seas. If one day China can do that, it'd be more than ripples.
Despite much reduced in size from their glorious empire days' heights, the British Royal Navy is still the only other beside the US Navy that seriously roam the oceans. That's of course no issue for the US Navy, in fact, much welcome, since they act as support task forces.
The Russian and French navies still have that capibility but look strategically and objectively lost at the high seas. Roam around nowadays for what? Maintain some credible nuclear missile submarines lurking around for deterrent and some warships here and there for token presence their befitting their blue-water power status.
The entire North Atlantic from US east to Britain and North Pacific from US west coast to Japan are out of bounds to all navies except US, British, Candian and trusted allies since WW1; the defence article of faith of being unreachable to seaborne invasion. Britain has the riskiest geographical position and came within a close shave in WW2 with Dunkirk and Battle of Britain, but managed to fend off Germany. Yes, these are bullies, but class acts. They can enter your seas at will but you can't enter their seas. If one day China can do that, it'd be more than ripples.
Very easy lah for CHINA.
Just make long-term naval base visits to CUBA and VENEZUELA and US is within distance.
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Just make long-term naval base visits to CUBA and VENEZUELA and US is within distance.
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You might be thinking of the HMAS Melbourne, collided and sinked 2 battleships before it got scrapped.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Melbourne_(R21)
Even Russian naval warships are not allowed anywhere near Cuba or Venezuela. The Bay of Pigs invasion ended in fiasco but the point made is clear. No foreign power warships within landing or missile range of the US. Only Alaska couldn't be helped. It's practically next to Russia.
The Bay of Pigs was followed up by the Cuban missile crisis, in which the US went for broke, and came out winning the bluff as the USSR backed down. The balance of power then was such that the US from Germany could nuke the USSR couldn't do vice versa, unless it had a base like in Cuba.
The whole episode almost sparked off WW3 nuclear edition, but it's kind of a close shave bad joke nowadays since the invention of nuclear ballistic missile submarines. Everybody (well at least the big four, US, Russia, UK, France) all know they can nuke or get nuked by each other from anywhere.
However, nuke capability is still different from conventional invasion landing capability. That's still guarded as a matter of life and death.
The biggest sticks in the ocean nowadays are the SSBN. Not a gentlemanly weapon but who are, anyway...
Surfaced warships are for show and carriers are the biggest show ponies at this time of history.
China should build more nuclear submarines and get one of them painted red to creep up the Potomac River on the 4th of July and emerge unveiling a banner that read : HAPPY B'DAY AMERICA !!!
Happened 3 years ago, wahahaha....
:p:o
Surfaced warships are for show and carriers are the biggest show ponies at this time of history.
China should build more nuclear submarines and get one of them painted red to creep up the Potomac River on the 4th of July and emerge unveiling a banner that read : HAPPY B'DAY AMERICA !!!
Happened 3 years ago, wahahaha....
:p:oAmerican military chiefs have been left dumbstruck by an undetected Chinese submarine popping up at the heart of a recent Pacific exercise and close to the vast U.S.S. Kitty Hawk – a 1,000ft supercarrier with 4,500 personnel on board.
By the time it surfaced the 160ft Song Class diesel-electric attack submarine is understood to have sailed within viable range for launching torpedoes or missiles at the carrier.
According to senior Nato officials the incident caused consternation in the U.S. Navy.
The Americans had no idea China’s fast-growing submarine fleet had reached such a level of sophistication, or that it posed such a threat.
One Nato figure said the effect was “as big a shock as the Russians launching Sputnik” – a reference to the Soviet Union’s first orbiting satellite in 1957 which marked the start of the space age.
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The biggest sticks in the ocean nowadays are the SSBN. Not a gentlemanly weapon but who are, anyway...
Surfaced warships are for show and carriers are the biggest show ponies at this time of history.
China should build more nuclear submarines and get one of them painted red to creep up the Potomac River on the 4th of July and emerge unveiling a banner that read : HAPPY B'DAY AMERICA !!!
Happened 3 years ago, wahahaha....
Yeah, what a way to put it; quite an ungentlemantly weapon.
All rules and bets are off.
Wonder if Singapore can buy one and creep up at Port Dickson or Klang with a Merdeka banner, surprise!?
Yeah, what a way to put it; quite an ungentlemanly weapon.
All rules and bets are off.
Wonder if Singapore can buy one and creep up at Port Dickson or Klang with a Merdeka banner, surprise!?
Nothing will surprise the Malaysians anymore. They got two engines that flew by themselves to Uruguay.
From the people, there will be warm Welcome as most of the population still regard Singapore as one of them. But to the ruling BN, what can they do except lying to the rakyat again that Singapore was invited. HAhahaha....:p
ps. Maybe should sneak one up on this coming Merdeka Day.
A pacific ocean fleet is definitely in their plans. They are not going to do it now but you can bet that they will be doing that in less than 10 years' time. If not, why will they build 2 carriers now and evaluating 4 blueprints now? I don't think they are building carriers just to patrol the China sea. Anyone can discern that!
Before they do that, they need to subdue Taiwan and the ocean's open for them!
During the 1400s, Ming Dynasty China had the world's largest naval fleet that reached beyond South China Sea across Indian Ocean to Africa. Then for some reasons, the entire fleet were decommissioned as meaningless as if they had self-destruct by proving the the Middle Kingdom was the centre of the universe and master of civilisation; no further expedition required.
Naval interests were revived during late Qing Dynasty after watching the Japanese rise as Asia's premier power through a stunning naval defeat of the Russians. The idea was non-expasionary, just a fleet maintain Chinese defence integrity in north Pacific, and to enter the era of the steel steamship. Japan, being the expansionary power in the region, couldn't allow that to happen and by various means and excuses, managed to provoke war and wiped out the Chinese North Pacific fleet before it could become full-fledged. China lost Taiwan and a humungous sum in reparation to Japan, that Japan used to build an even larger and more powerful navy.
China never had a proper naval fleet since then until PRC began building one gradually after the Korean War. The lack of naval power was the reason why PRC couldn't pursue ROC all the way to Taiwan in 1949. You think during that time, PLA soldiers were afraid to fight or die fighting the US defenders of Taiwan? They simply didn't have the ships.
The Korean War exposed another huge disadvantage for lacking a naval even for warfare mostly fought on land. At one point, North Korea had already overrun Seoul. The US decided go around by sea and mounted an amphibious landing at Inchon. That cut off North Korean backline supplies to frontline troops completely and sparkled off Chinese direct military involvement because North Korea were going to lose without backup and US troops would cruise all the way to Yalu River.
If North Korea and China had proper coastal and naval defences, it's unlikely the Inchon landing would have succeeded, more likely that there'd be no South Korea.
After 9/11, America has have her arms full with the war on terror, Iraq Afghanistan and the perennials Iran and N.Korea, but she failed to check the growth of China militarily within these years and this is something that is detrimental to their own feelgood wellbeing and now they are kicking their own asses on those abject negligences. They centred their China-plan on Taiwan but failed to grasp that China is more than Taiwan. Backfired badly, from a military point of view, the failures to check the Chinese's growth. Their days of playing the bears against the pandas are over with the formation of Shanghai Cooperative Organisation.
Space is the next battleground.
China put its first satellite up in 1970. Over the next 30 years, China put 50 more satellites into orbit, and developed satellite launcher rockets that were 90 percent successful. By 1986, Chinese launchers were considered reliable enough for Western companies to use them for putting their expensive satellites into orbit. In the last decade, China has developed modern (comparable to Western models) satellites for everything from communications, photo-recons to weather forecastings.
By the end of the year, China will have at least sixty military space satellites in orbit. Fourteen of these will be dual-use photo reconnaissance or largely military radar satellites. These are smaller than those used by the United States. The Chinese models tend to be three tons or less and don't last as long. There are also fifteen military communications satellites and sixteen Beidou navigation satellites. There are another dozen or so miscellaneous scientific and research satellites. Most of these satellites have gone up in the last five years, and are of modern design.
China is going for space walks and underwater excursions with their ever expanding fleet of subs.
Aircraft carriers are just status symbol like expensive timepieces. Well, you can tell time without them but you still want to own them, for vanity reason, at least. China will have those carriers just to stroke the egos of their admirals. They might just buy some expensive watches for those generals, :o:p
Whether America "recognises" China as a world power or not is irrelevant. China is a world power and keeps getting bigger too.
Space is the next battleground.
China put its first satellite up in 1970. Over the next 30 years, China put 50 more satellites into orbit, and developed satellite launcher rockets that were 90 percent successful. By 1986, Chinese launchers were considered reliable enough for Western companies to use them for putting their expensive satellites into orbit. In the last decade, China has developed modern (comparable to Western models) satellites for everything from communications, photo-recons to weather forecastings.
By the end of the year, China will have at least sixty military space satellites in orbit. Fourteen of these will be dual-use photo reconnaissance or largely military radar satellites. These are smaller than those used by the United States. The Chinese models tend to be three tons or less and don't last as long. There are also fifteen military communications satellites and sixteen Beidou navigation satellites. There are another dozen or so miscellaneous scientific and research satellites. Most of these satellites have gone up in the last five years, and are of modern design.
China is going for space walks and underwater excursions with their ever expanding fleet of subs.
Aircraft carriers are just status symbol like expensive timepieces. Well, you can tell time without them but you still want to own them, for vanity reason, at least. China will have those carriers just to stroke the egos of their admirals. They might just buy some expensive watches for those generals, :o
:pWhether America "recognises" China as a world power or not is irrelevant. China is a world power and keeps getting bigger too.
hey guys! actually US already stop building Aircraft Carrier and senate are still studying arsenal ship ideas. can google for it, its not something new. arsenal ships will be loaded with all type of missiles and follow order from a command ship like aircraft carrier, aegis cruiser or a aegis destroyer. they believe having more missile at your depose is better than having an aircraft carrier and the whole escort fleets performing the duty. aircraft carrier is too big a target and a sitting duck for a super sonic missile with a powerful warhead. i think aircraft carrier will be like those giant dreadnought battleships, sooner or later will be obsolete with better missile technology.
if im China, i will research on long range high precision super sonic missile and ability to fire below water or surface than buying those expensive sitting duck with high maintenance cost.
if im China, i will research on long range high precision super sonic missile and ability to fire below water or surface than buying those expensive sitting duck with high maintenance cost.
hey guys! actually US already stop building Aircraft Carrier and senate are still studying arsenal ship ideas. can google for it, its not something new. arsenal ships will be loaded with all type of missiles and follow order from a command ship like aircraft carrier, aegis cruiser or a aegis destroyer. they believe having more missile at your depose is better than having an aircraft carrier and the whole escort fleets performing the duty. aircraft carrier is too big a target and a sitting duck for a super sonic missile with a powerful warhead. i think aircraft carrier will be like those giant dreadnought battleships, sooner or later will be obsolete with better missile technology.
if im China, i will research on long range high precision super sonic missile and ability to fire below water or surface than buying those expensive sitting duck with high maintenance cost.
Really ?
It is their euphemism of saying they are broke and couln't keep up with the Jones's. Would the Americans refrain from rubbing you into your face if they can afford it and get away with that at the same time ? Not the same Yaya yankees 20 years ago, right ?
True, they still have the most formidable fleets around but they cost X amount of money to run and maintain and that is just what they couldn't afford right now.
So, they are reduced to not only have to do with the second best but they also have to come up with the reasons to justify their newly poor status. Typical Americans except they are not saying they are poor, yet.:o:o
Let me give you another suggestions - make $ lah. If the Chinese can build a ski jump type carrier for cheap (they have a booming shipbuilding industry) they can supply with their jets and sell it to many 3rd world countries.
No to mention that building and operating one gives you lots of experience.
No to mention that building and operating one gives you lots of experience.
2011 is the new 2014 according to manokie
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China’s defense minister was at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue of Asian and US defense ministers and military brass in Singapore over the weekend, proclaiming that his country’s “peaceful rise” was still intact despite some very evident clashes with Vietnam and the Philippines only a few days before.
Indeed, his Vietnamese and Philippine counterparts were on hand to put the claim in a different light. Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters descended on the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi on Sunday to protest an incident in which a Chinese vessel allegedly deliberately cut a submerged cable for a Vietnamese oil survey ship conducting seismic tests. The Philippines has also accused China of putting up military posts on reefs claimed by Manila.
Regional belief in this peaceful rise has been eroded over the past year by a combination of incidents, including with India and Japan, and by China’s evident success in moving toward possessing advanced weapons systems, some of which in principle can match those of the United States and Russia. Some of those must be viewed as strategic assets of limited relevance to more localized potential conflicts. But one new asset that is both a global statement and new potential threat to immediate neighbors is about to enter the arena to again attempt to rewrite a history that does not always square with the facts.
That is China’s first aircraft carrier, a 67,000 ton monster that began life as a partly-finished Soviet vessel that was sold to China by Ukraine in 1998. Reports suggest it will enter service this year based out of a southern Chinese port with a complement of about 50 aircraft and pilots who have been practicing carrier landing and takeoffs on improvised platforms and de-commissioned carriers.
But it is not just the capability of the ship that sends shudders through neighbors already concerned about Washington’s ability and will to maintain its Pacific fleet to a level that ensures its overall supremacy in the region. Even the vessel’s name carries a threat.
All reports to date say that the aircraft carrier is to be named “Shi Lang.” This was the name of the general who conquered Taiwan in 1683 for the recently established Qing dynasty, finally defeating the Ming general, Zheng Chenggong. Zheng fled to the island to escape the Qing, pushing the Dutch out in 1662 and establishing a small state around what is now the city of Tainan.
Shi Lang therefore, for the first time in history, made Taiwan part of the Chinese empire. That Shi Lang was fighting on behalf of China’s Manchu occupiers, who had destroyed the Ming empire a few years earlier, is quietly forgotten.
The use of Shi’s name is most obviously intended to send a message to Taiwan about its eventual fate — being re-incorporated into the People’s Republic — and to impress on China’s domestic audience the importance that its leaders attach to regaining Taiwan.
However, it also sends a message to Southeast Asia about the expansion that the Chinese empire has undergone since the Manchu conquest — the incorporation of Manchu lands and much of Mongolia into the Chinese empire, the acquisition of Taiwan and, since 1949, massive Han settlement of lands historically occupied by non-Hans, like Uighurs, Mongols, Tibetans, etc.
Shi Lang’s conquest of Taiwan was also significant for the people of what is today the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. At the time of his conquest, Han Chinese were a small minority of the Southeast Asian region’s population, then consisting of various Austronesian-language, Malayo-Polynesian ethnic groups closely related to those in Northern Luzon and, more distantly, to those in what are now Malaysia and Indonesia. That the Austronesians who spread south from Taiwan probably originated on the Asian mainland does not make them Chinese. Indeed, there are no Austronesians among China’s many minorities today, the nearest being the remnants of the Cham, who ruled central Vietnam until the 15th century.
Moreover, successive Chinese empires had shown no interest in acquiring Taiwan and had actually sought to prevent any outflow of people from Fujian to it or to Southeast Asia. Significant Han immigration to the region only started with the Dutch, who encouraged traders to grow rice and sugar cane.
That process gathered pace after Shi Lang’s conquest so that over time the native inhabitants divided into tribes who, being technologically less advanced, were on retreat. It was a gradual process, but Hans did not become a majority until some time in the 19th century. Now the aboriginal people still able to speak their Austronesian dialects are about 2 percent of Taiwan’s 23 million population.
Nothing can undo that now any more than Native Americans can turn the clock back 200 years. However, Shi Lang will now be a constant reminder to the Malay (in the broadest sense) peoples of their defeat in Taiwan at the hands of an expansionist China, adding to their fears about China’s ambition to control the whole South China Sea and its islands, right up to their own territorial seas and ignoring the continental shelves that usually help define exclusive economic zones. In the case of the latest Chinese clash with a Vietnamese exploration vessel, it occurred just 120 nautical miles off the southern coast of Vietnam.
China also accompanies its claims with accounts of a history worthy of Stalin’s encyclopedia, China’s airbrushing of disgraced politburo members or its yo-yo treatment of Confucius. Recent history makes it very plain that Taiwan has not been part of the Chinese political entity “since time immemorial” but was almost the last addition to the empire.
As for claims to the South China Sea and its islands based on visits by fishermen, they ignore the fact that commerce in that sea, and into and across the Indian Ocean, was run by Malay vessels and crews hundreds of years before Chinese merchants ventured far from their coast. Chinese Buddhist pilgrims to Sri Lanka went on Malay boats via Java or Sumatra. Nearly 2000 years ago, Roman merchants brought spice island products from southern India whence they had been brought by Malay and Indian sailors. At much the same time, Malays were crossing the southern part of the Indian Ocean, settling the huge island of Madagascar and leaving marks in Africa. Even today, Madagascar’s human gene pool is 50 percent Austronesian and its language 80 percent.
The modern states that are the successors of those seafaring, migrant and trading Malays lack — unlike the Chinese — the written records to show their history. But advances in archaeology, in genetics and other sciences that can make up for gaps in written history, are beginning to make the broad Malay world better aware of its past and of its right both to contest Chinese claims and resist further Han expansion into Southeast Asia.
The aircraft carrier Shi Lang will surely add to that awareness. Meanwhile, one tide has turned in favor of the Malays/Austronesians that may ultimately count for more than weaponry: demography. The Han Chinese population, so long the main driver of expansion of the Chinese state, is peaking. The numbers of Malay and Austronesian peoples are still growing.
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China’s defense minister was at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue of Asian and US defense ministers and military brass in Singapore over the weekend, proclaiming that his country’s “peaceful rise” was still intact despite some very evident clashes with Vietnam and the Philippines only a few days before.
Indeed, his Vietnamese and Philippine counterparts were on hand to put the claim in a different light. Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters descended on the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi on Sunday to protest an incident in which a Chinese vessel allegedly deliberately cut a submerged cable for a Vietnamese oil survey ship conducting seismic tests. The Philippines has also accused China of putting up military posts on reefs claimed by Manila.
Regional belief in this peaceful rise has been eroded over the past year by a combination of incidents, including with India and Japan, and by China’s evident success in moving toward possessing advanced weapons systems, some of which in principle can match those of the United States and Russia. Some of those must be viewed as strategic assets of limited relevance to more localized potential conflicts. But one new asset that is both a global statement and new potential threat to immediate neighbors is about to enter the arena to again attempt to rewrite a history that does not always square with the facts.
That is China’s first aircraft carrier, a 67,000 ton monster that began life as a partly-finished Soviet vessel that was sold to China by Ukraine in 1998. Reports suggest it will enter service this year based out of a southern Chinese port with a complement of about 50 aircraft and pilots who have been practicing carrier landing and takeoffs on improvised platforms and de-commissioned carriers.
But it is not just the capability of the ship that sends shudders through neighbors already concerned about Washington’s ability and will to maintain its Pacific fleet to a level that ensures its overall supremacy in the region. Even the vessel’s name carries a threat.
All reports to date say that the aircraft carrier is to be named “Shi Lang.” This was the name of the general who conquered Taiwan in 1683 for the recently established Qing dynasty, finally defeating the Ming general, Zheng Chenggong. Zheng fled to the island to escape the Qing, pushing the Dutch out in 1662 and establishing a small state around what is now the city of Tainan.
Shi Lang therefore, for the first time in history, made Taiwan part of the Chinese empire. That Shi Lang was fighting on behalf of China’s Manchu occupiers, who had destroyed the Ming empire a few years earlier, is quietly forgotten.
The use of Shi’s name is most obviously intended to send a message to Taiwan about its eventual fate — being re-incorporated into the People’s Republic — and to impress on China’s domestic audience the importance that its leaders attach to regaining Taiwan.
However, it also sends a message to Southeast Asia about the expansion that the Chinese empire has undergone since the Manchu conquest — the incorporation of Manchu lands and much of Mongolia into the Chinese empire, the acquisition of Taiwan and, since 1949, massive Han settlement of lands historically occupied by non-Hans, like Uighurs, Mongols, Tibetans, etc.
Shi Lang’s conquest of Taiwan was also significant for the people of what is today the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. At the time of his conquest, Han Chinese were a small minority of the Southeast Asian region’s population, then consisting of various Austronesian-language, Malayo-Polynesian ethnic groups closely related to those in Northern Luzon and, more distantly, to those in what are now Malaysia and Indonesia. That the Austronesians who spread south from Taiwan probably originated on the Asian mainland does not make them Chinese. Indeed, there are no Austronesians among China’s many minorities today, the nearest being the remnants of the Cham, who ruled central Vietnam until the 15th century.
Moreover, successive Chinese empires had shown no interest in acquiring Taiwan and had actually sought to prevent any outflow of people from Fujian to it or to Southeast Asia. Significant Han immigration to the region only started with the Dutch, who encouraged traders to grow rice and sugar cane.
That process gathered pace after Shi Lang’s conquest so that over time the native inhabitants divided into tribes who, being technologically less advanced, were on retreat. It was a gradual process, but Hans did not become a majority until some time in the 19th century. Now the aboriginal people still able to speak their Austronesian dialects are about 2 percent of Taiwan’s 23 million population.
Nothing can undo that now any more than Native Americans can turn the clock back 200 years. However, Shi Lang will now be a constant reminder to the Malay (in the broadest sense) peoples of their defeat in Taiwan at the hands of an expansionist China, adding to their fears about China’s ambition to control the whole South China Sea and its islands, right up to their own territorial seas and ignoring the continental shelves that usually help define exclusive economic zones. In the case of the latest Chinese clash with a Vietnamese exploration vessel, it occurred just 120 nautical miles off the southern coast of Vietnam.
China also accompanies its claims with accounts of a history worthy of Stalin’s encyclopedia, China’s airbrushing of disgraced politburo members or its yo-yo treatment of Confucius. Recent history makes it very plain that Taiwan has not been part of the Chinese political entity “since time immemorial” but was almost the last addition to the empire.
As for claims to the South China Sea and its islands based on visits by fishermen, they ignore the fact that commerce in that sea, and into and across the Indian Ocean, was run by Malay vessels and crews hundreds of years before Chinese merchants ventured far from their coast. Chinese Buddhist pilgrims to Sri Lanka went on Malay boats via Java or Sumatra. Nearly 2000 years ago, Roman merchants brought spice island products from southern India whence they had been brought by Malay and Indian sailors. At much the same time, Malays were crossing the southern part of the Indian Ocean, settling the huge island of Madagascar and leaving marks in Africa. Even today, Madagascar’s human gene pool is 50 percent Austronesian and its language 80 percent.
The modern states that are the successors of those seafaring, migrant and trading Malays lack — unlike the Chinese — the written records to show their history. But advances in archaeology, in genetics and other sciences that can make up for gaps in written history, are beginning to make the broad Malay world better aware of its past and of its right both to contest Chinese claims and resist further Han expansion into Southeast Asia.
The aircraft carrier Shi Lang will surely add to that awareness. Meanwhile, one tide has turned in favor of the Malays/Austronesians that may ultimately count for more than weaponry: demography. The Han Chinese population, so long the main driver of expansion of the Chinese state, is peaking. The numbers of Malay and Austronesian peoples are still growing.
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