Johannesburg, Sep 26 (IANS) Although Beijing has commissioned its first aircraft carrier, China poses no threat to any country in the world, a South African newspaper said Wednesday.
On Tuesday, China’s first aircraft carrier was delivered and commissioned to the navy after years of refitting and repeated sea trials, Xinhua reported.
In an editorial carried by South Africa’s Business Day newspaper, Kobus Van der Wath wrote that the launch of the aircraft carrier “serves as a marker on China’s drive to build a blue-water navy” and that it is “seen as a symbol of a rising China assuming its rightful place on the high sea”.
Van der Wath is the managing director of Beijing Axis, an international organization known for its business and support services related to investment and mining in China and Africa.
“China’s muscular rise is only a reassertion of its rightful position among the world nations, given that the country has the world’s largest population and second-largest economy,” he wrote.
However, the aircraft carrier “would pose no threat to any country in the world, and it is unarmed and has no aircraft”.
“The Chinese world view is heavily seasoned by the belief that its global power and influence is far less than it could and should be,” the expert said.
He said that the history of China’s naval exploration proves that the country “has never launched sea invasion into any country”.
