Slides presentation at the ICAS public lecture on Oct 24 Speaker:Richard Salmons, Adjunct Professor at Temple University, Japan Campus

1. China’s new navy
and status-seeking in contested Asia

2. The PLA
Navy’s recent
addition(s)

3. The new fleet
in the
popular
Chinese
imagination

4. Main
ideas
For scholars:
HADR lets China
play the status
role of regional
order provider
For
policymakers:
The West’s HADR
narrative has
created its own
reality in the
region
For the public:
China’s navy need
not fight the US
Navy, if it can
replace it

5. 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami
US Deployed:
▷ 25 ships,
including
aircraft
carrier
▷ 15,000
personnel
▷ 103 aircraft
Indonesian
attitudes:
79% said
post-tsunami
aid had
“improved their
impression of
America”
US officials:
Declared a ‘soft power’ win

6. ▷ Signals
commitment
▷ Demonstrates
capabilities
▷ Pretext for
engagement
Strategic aspects of HADR

7. Chinese priorities
▷ Neutralise
perception of
‘China threat’
▷ Match regional
competitors
▷ Address
nationalist
sentiment

8. Why HADR builds
status
▷ Not as ‘status symbol’
alone…
▷ … But through
responsible regional
roles…
▷ … Performed sufficiently
dramatically to shift
perceptions

9. Implications
More
ambitious
PLAN
▷ Greater
citizen
protection?
▷ On patrol in
the Pacific?
US and allies’
monopoly
▷ China as a
competitor in
international
‘public
goods’
Chinese order
▷ Giving
legitimacy to
a ‘Chinese
order’ – with
Chinese
rules
“China’s carrier-
centered navy is
not designed so
much to
challenge U.S.
maritime
supremacy as to
inherit it.”
- Sam Roggeveen,
Lowy Institute

10. Questions and comments