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China’s military
ChinaMilitary

Size of China’s navy may be closing gap on US fleet but what can the PLA do with just one overseas naval base?

  • The US maintains nearly 800 military bases in more than 70 countries and territories
  • If not keen to enter alliances, China could use access agreements and other arrangements to have strategic access abroad, says analyst

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Officers and soldiers of the Chinese naval fleet prepare to carry out an escort mission in April 2020. The 35th fleet went to the Gulf of Aden and waters off Somalia to escort civilian ships. Photo: Xinhua
Kristin Huang
Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2015 launched a military modernisation drive, and China has since poured millions of dollars into the research and development of new military equipment.
Money that went to the navy drove a shipbuilding frenzy and expanded China’s naval fleet.

According to the US Department of Defence 2020 annual report to Congress on Chinese military power, China has surpassed the US in terms of naval fleet size.

“The PRC [People’s Republic of China] has the largest navy in the world, with an overall battle force of approximately 350 ships and submarines, including over 130 major surface combatants … In comparison, the US Navy’s battle force is approximately 293 ships as of early 2020,” said the report which was released in September.

Analysts said expanding the navy fleet was aimed at protecting China’s overseas interests, especially while Beijing was starting infrastructure projects abroad, but it also created a challenge. Some said China had too few overseas bases to support its ambitions.

The United States maintains nearly 800 military bases in more than 70 countries and territories despite recently closing hundreds of bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, but China so far has only one base in Djibouti.

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