No axe to grind with India: Chinese navy

Sandeep Dikshit

Zhanjiang City (Guangdong), August 11

While the confrontation with the Chinese army has entered into the second month, leading to hot words in Beijing, its navy says it has no axe to grind with India because the Indian Ocean is a “vast region”.

At the sprawling base of the South China Sea Fleet in this hot and humid south China port city, its officers said they anticipated more cooperation with the Indian Navy in cleansing the oceans of drug running, piracy and arms trafficking.

Addressing a concern in India over China rapidly inducting aircraft carriers in its armada, Chinese naval officers sought to be conciliatory.

“The number of aircraft carriers is not critical. Our role in China’s National Defence Policy is defensive. We will never intrude into other countries, nor will we endure obstruction by other countries,” said Capt He Luyang.

“All our major weapon systems are not toys,” interjected his colleague. This is the first time Indian journalists were given monitored access to the sword arm of the Chinese navy.