Free Republic

In a deployment not seen in seven years, three Chinese warships including a guided-missile destroyer warship embarked on a tour of Gulf Arab states for the first time since 2010 in what al Arabiya has called Beijing's "desire to play a bigger role on the global stage."The three Chinese vessels arrived in Qatar’s capital Doha on Saturday following a visit to the Saudi port city of Jeddah, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. While China’s navy regularly tours the world and its ships patrol off the coasts of Yemen and Somalia as part of international anti-piracy operations, such visits to...

Chinese Type 093 class SSN (nuclear attack sub) was recently seen moored at their new naval base on Hainan island. This base, just north of Vietnam, must make the Indians nervous, because more and more Chinese warships are showing up in the Indian Ocean. It was only a year ago that China confirmed, as many suspected, that the first Type 093 boar entered service in December, 2006. Officially, that was a secret, and Chinese nuclear subs don't go to sea at much, so it's difficult to tell if new ones are actually in service, and not just tied up at...