By Hu Bo

In 2022, the US instigated some countries to keep hyping up the “maritime threats from China”, trying to use that as an excuse to maintain its hegemony on the sea. First, the US, Japan, India and Australia launched the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) at the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QSD), commonly known as the Quad, held in Tokyo in May. The IPMDA claimed to crack down on illegal fishing, share maritime information, and enhance the ability to monitor the waters in the Pacific Ocean, Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean. Tony Radakin, Britain’s Chief of the Defence Staff, went to great lengths to exaggerate the “maritime threats from China” in an address at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in mid-December, claiming that “surely China’s military forces will start to reach into the Atlantic”, and the melting of the polar ice caps would halve the time it takes for shipping to travel between Europe and Asia, making it easier for Beijing to flex its military muscles in the Atlantic.

Ironically, the US military is sending aircraft and ships to carry out maritime and air activities in waters around China thousands of times, nearly 2,000 ship-days every year along with high-intensity close-in reconnaissance, while Britain has also been enhancing its presence in those waters over recent years. Yet they have consistently asserted those military activities were aimed to defend the freedom of navigation in the region.

If they follow this logic, why are Britain and the US so concerned even before the Chinese forces have ever been to the Atlantic? Their concern exposes the underlying logic guiding their actions. The remarks by Radakin and others once again proved the hypocrisy, double standards and contradiction in their maritime narratives, which is that only their armed forces are for “justice”, “freedom” and “peace”.

As a matter of fact, the theory that China is posing threats on the sea is just a reflection of their own mindset or intention. Ever since the Age of Exploration, those countries have used their maritime hegemony to exercise colonialism and power politics, so much so that they still tend to coerce other countries with gunboats in the modern day. Given their own history and experience, they, seeing that China is strengthening its navy, naturally imagine that China would repeat the path they have taken before.

At the same time, hyping the “maritime threats” posed by China has become a magic trick for some Western countries’ naval forces to secure budget and enhance political presence at home. Many officials and scholars in the West said that they paid so much attention to China because it is a great power. Creating a sense of crisis by exaggerating how powerful and aggressive the Chinese navy is to justify their own military buildup – this is now the usual trick played by Western politicians and generals.

The Chinese military, on the other hand, always upholds a national defense policy that is defensive in nature, and the PLA Navy is tasked with “offshore waters defense and open seas protection”. With military modernization and the growing need to perform various missions, the Chinese armed forces have indeed sailed to the far sea more frequently in the past decade and more, but mainly for escorting, disaster relief and goodwill visits. Either authorized by the UN or other organizations or upon the invitation or agreement of relevant countries along the sea, those missions are truly peaceful and completely and essentially different from the overseas deployments and operations by countries represented by Britain and the US that are aimed to threaten other countries.

Even if the Chinese military grows to be much stronger one day, China will not – and sees no need to – maintain massive troops around other countries and impose coercion on them, which is exactly what Britain and the US are doing in China’s vicinity today. The time has changed. The aggressive DNA of Washington and London cannot be found in China’s nature, and it has no aggressive strategy overseas as they do.

If Britain, the US and other countries are truly preserving peace and freedom in global waters as they claim, they should not feel nervous about a growing Chinese military with a broader presence.

(The author is director of the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative)

Editor's note: Originally published on huanqiu.com, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.