The Hindu : Accident may spur China's Navy modernisation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 04, 2003

International

International

Accident may spur China's Navy modernisation

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE May 3. The submarine `accident', in which 70 sailors died, may spur China's efforts towards the modernisation of its Navy.

The 70 personnel of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy lost their lives in the disaster that struck a conventional submarine.

The dead included an unspecified number of officers besides seamen. On a different plane, the `transparency' of the Chinese authorities in publicising the tragedy has come in for particular notice.

The timing of the official announcement in Beijing, coinciding with the rising death toll on account of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), is being interpreted in more than one way.

Surely, the disclosure is seen as a sign of the incremental attempts at transparency by the new leadership in China.

An uncharitable view, however, is that the dismal mood in that huge country over the SARS epidemic may have actually emboldened the authorities to break the news about the submarine disaster, too, in pursuit of transparency.

The accident, blamed on "mechanical problems'', occurred while the "conventionally-powered submarine'' was on a drill or exercise near Neichangshan Islands within the Chinese territorial waters.

Following the `accident' on an unspecified date, the Chairman of China's Central Military Commission, Jiang Zemin, sent condolence messages, dated May 2, to the family members of the victims, it was said.

The damaged submarine was towed back to the port base. The message behind such minute details is seen to have a bearing on the current thinking of the Chinese military authorities.

Urgency

Shortly after being re-elected to his military-related post in March this year, Mr. Jiang not only re-emphasised the supremacy of the ruling Communist Party of China over the PLA, including its naval and air force wings, but also underlined the importance of modernising them.

The incident will only enhance the urgency of the modernisation agenda, analysts say. Modernisation is also seen as an answer to the PLA Navy's `limitations', as viewed by observers like Michael Swaine or Ashley Tellis and others, in relation to "Asian powers'' like Japan or Russia or India.

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