Mikesingh
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China will increase the number of its marine corps from 20,000 to one lakh to deploy them overseas for the first time, including at the strategic Gwadar port in Pakistan and military logistics base in Djibouti in the Indian Ocean.
The expansion was planned to protect China's maritime lifelines and its growing interests overseas, said Chinese military insiders. and experts.
Gwadar is a deep-sea port next to Strait of Hormuz, the key oil route in the Persian Gulf, built with Chinese funding. Although the port is not home to any People's Liberation Army installation, navy ships are expected to dock there at the facility in the future. Gwadar also connects the $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir with China's Xinjiang.
Pakistan is itself setting up a Special Security Division comprising 15,000 troops, including 9,000 soldiers and 6,000 paramilitary personnel to protect CPEC and Chinese forces.
China is constructing a naval base in Djibouti to provide logistical support in one of the world's busiest waterways in the Indian Ocean. China denies it is an overseas military base but a centre to be used mostly for resupply purposes for anti-piracy , humanitarian and peacekeeping operations.
The expanded Chinese marine corps was part of a wider push to refocus the world's largest army away from winning a land war based on sheer numbers and towards meeting a range of security scenarios using highly specialised units, a news report in Hong Kongbased South China Morining Post said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is reducing the size of the PLA by three lakh, with nearly all of the cuts coming from the land forces. The size of the navy will also grow by 15% from its current estimated size of 2.35 lakh personnel.
“Besides its original missions of a possible war with Taiwan, maritime defence in the East and South China seas, it's also foreseeable that navy's mission will expand overseas, including protection of China in the Korean peninsula, the country's maritime lifelines, as well as offshore supply deports like in Djibouti and Gwadar.“ naval expert Li Jie said.
http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/...deploy-1-lakh-marines-at-ports-15032017015030
I had always said that Gwadar is actually being built as a base for the PLAN under the guise of an 'economic corridor'. This has now been confirmed by the Chinese themselves. All their talk of it being only a 'logistics base' for resupply of Chinese ships for 'anti piracy ops' etc is absolute hogwash. Who are they trying to kid?
And now deployment of Chinese marines and navy at Gwadar is a guarantee against an Indian attack on Gwadar in the event of a full scale war with Pakistan as the Chinese would be involved too, or that is what Pak thinks. They are aware that a naval blockade by the Indian navy at Karachi and Gwadar like in 1971 will be extremely risky for India as the PLAN would get involved too. Nice strategy on the part of the Pakis.
The expansion was planned to protect China's maritime lifelines and its growing interests overseas, said Chinese military insiders. and experts.
Gwadar is a deep-sea port next to Strait of Hormuz, the key oil route in the Persian Gulf, built with Chinese funding. Although the port is not home to any People's Liberation Army installation, navy ships are expected to dock there at the facility in the future. Gwadar also connects the $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir with China's Xinjiang.
Pakistan is itself setting up a Special Security Division comprising 15,000 troops, including 9,000 soldiers and 6,000 paramilitary personnel to protect CPEC and Chinese forces.
China is constructing a naval base in Djibouti to provide logistical support in one of the world's busiest waterways in the Indian Ocean. China denies it is an overseas military base but a centre to be used mostly for resupply purposes for anti-piracy , humanitarian and peacekeeping operations.
The expanded Chinese marine corps was part of a wider push to refocus the world's largest army away from winning a land war based on sheer numbers and towards meeting a range of security scenarios using highly specialised units, a news report in Hong Kongbased South China Morining Post said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is reducing the size of the PLA by three lakh, with nearly all of the cuts coming from the land forces. The size of the navy will also grow by 15% from its current estimated size of 2.35 lakh personnel.
“Besides its original missions of a possible war with Taiwan, maritime defence in the East and South China seas, it's also foreseeable that navy's mission will expand overseas, including protection of China in the Korean peninsula, the country's maritime lifelines, as well as offshore supply deports like in Djibouti and Gwadar.“ naval expert Li Jie said.
http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/...deploy-1-lakh-marines-at-ports-15032017015030
I had always said that Gwadar is actually being built as a base for the PLAN under the guise of an 'economic corridor'. This has now been confirmed by the Chinese themselves. All their talk of it being only a 'logistics base' for resupply of Chinese ships for 'anti piracy ops' etc is absolute hogwash. Who are they trying to kid?
And now deployment of Chinese marines and navy at Gwadar is a guarantee against an Indian attack on Gwadar in the event of a full scale war with Pakistan as the Chinese would be involved too, or that is what Pak thinks. They are aware that a naval blockade by the Indian navy at Karachi and Gwadar like in 1971 will be extremely risky for India as the PLAN would get involved too. Nice strategy on the part of the Pakis.