China sends Warship into the Mediterranean

by Clifford F. Thies

With 30,000 people in Libya, China is sending the frigate Xuzhou into the Mediterranean, the first time in history that a Chinese warship will enter those waters. China has several hundred thousand people in Africa, engaged in all kinds of activities, such as oil exploration and development, the construction of infrastructure, and banking. But, with the rise of radical Islam, piracy off the east coast of Africa, and the outbreak of civil war the Magreb, China, like many other nations, finds itself a front-line state in the war on terror.

This is not the first time China has had to deal with radical Muslims and lawless bandits operating from within the Islamic world. As with us, in the United States, the conflict goes back centuries; indeed, even longer. While we, under President Thomas Jefferson dispatched American warships twice to deal with the piratical Barbary Coast states, the Chinese, during the Ming Dynasty, sent a fleet to the east coast of Africa to deal with the pirates there.

Today, China is just starting to assume its role as a member of the international community in securing peace in the world. Chinese naval ships and ground forces have joined in international missions in selected places around the world. The Chinese military build-up could potentially be a strong part of the international community. But, until China begins to take real steps to democratic reform, we will be nervous about China's military build-up build-up. We don't want to see happen in China what has happened in Egypt, where decades of mere lip-service to democratic reform results in a revolution that threatens the peace of the region.