The following is based on a translation of a report on a Chinese news site:
Chinese news site mil.news.sina.com.cn reports that the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) navy has been making great efforts to obtain access to ports abroad so that it may become a true blue water navy.
Its most important recent achievement is the agreement the Chinese navy’s commander-in-chief Adm. Wu Shengli secured from the Malaysian Navy for ships of the PLA Navy to use the port ofKota Kinabalu in Malaysian Borneo as a stopover location.
The Chinese navy can use the port for resupplies for its warships that petrol the waters near Malaysia and far from the Chinese mainland.
The report says that U.S. media is confused by this cooperation, because it believes that there is intensifying tension between Malaysia and China due to their maritime territorial dispute over the sea area near Kota Kinabalu.
The port issue proves that Malaysia, though does not take sides, is closer to China than the US.
The report continues that one day after the Malaysian port agreement, China obtained the rights to use the land at the port of Gwadar in Pakistan, that ensures China a foothold in the Indian Ocean and enables China to control the strategic Persian Gulf.
There is also the expected use of Australia’s port at Darwin by the PLA navy.
Moreover, there has long been news about China’s negotiation for a base in Djibouti, which has now come to fruition.