Unaccustomed to operating far from its own shores, China’s navy is even less used to actual fighting. So news on October 19th that Somali pirates had hijacked a Chinese commercial vessel in the Indian Ocean caused a stir at home. With three of its naval ships taking part in anti-piracy operations off Somalia, China for the first time would be in a position to use force to rescue a China-registered boat and its captured Chinese crew.

The deployment of the Chinese navy in the Gulf of Aden in January was the fleet’s first operational venture beyond the Pacific region. Coming after several years of rapid growth in the Chinese naval armoury, including the acquisition of new frigates, destroyers and submarines, the foray raised questions about whether China’s armed forces were beginning to go global. The pirate-plagued Gulf of Aden, through which shipments to China of oil and other vital commodities pass, would be an obvious place to become more used to distant security tasks. Several Chinese vessels had already been attacked there.

But China’s state-owned press has taken care not to let the hijacking of the De Xin Hai, a bulk carrier, and its 25 crew whip up expectations in China of imminent military action. A foreign-ministry official said China would make an “all-out effort” to rescue them. Global Times, an English-language newspaper in Beijing, said that China was in “a dilemma of choosing a military rescue or paying the ransom”. But Chinese-language media carried little news. They stressed that China’s navy could not have prevented the incident, which took place far from the area it patrols in the gulf. The De Xin Hai was 700 nautical miles (1,300km) from the coast.

... contd.