Erickson, Andrew S., and Austin M. Strange

Abstract
Beyond simply serving as a blockbuster image engaging domestic dreams of a strong military, however, since 2008 china’s antipiracy escorts have provided important soft-power benefits for Beijing on a truly international stage.  For the first time in its modern history China has deployed naval forces operationally beyond its immediate maritime periphery for extended durations, to protect merchant vessels from pirates in the Gulf of Aden.  Over a six-year span beginning in December 2008, China has contributed over ten thousand navy personnel in nearly twenty task forces.  In nearly eight hundred groups, these forces have escorted over six thousand Chinese and foreign commercial vessels and have “protected and helped over 60” of them.  As PLAN’s (People’s Liberation Army Navy) commander, Admiral Wu Shengli, informed one of the authors, the mission has achieved “two ‘100 percents’: providing 100 percent security to all ships under escort, while ensuring PLAN forces’ own security 100 percent.”
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