China's deployment of two navy destroyers and a supply vessel to escort Chinese ships in pirate-infested waters off Somalia is a significant event in the nation's evolution. Not for six centuries have its warships moved beyond the Asia-Pacific region for a military operation. While the international community has welcomed their arrival this week because they strengthen a multinational force protecting the world's most important sea trade route, those in the west worried about the mainland's rise view it with interest. So they should - the first shots fired at the marauders will signal the green light on Beijing's global power ambitions.
It is inevitable that the destroyers will fire on the pirates. About 20 per cent of the 1,265 Chinese ships that passed through the Gulf of Aden to the north of Somalia last year reportedly came under fire. Seven of the 100-plus foreign commercial vessels seized were Chinese. More than a dozen ships under various flags with about 200 crew members are in the hands of pirates.
Piracy is a lucrative business for the people of Puntland state in the northeast of lawless Somalia. Without a central government and their traditional means of income - fishing (which has been usurped by foreign trawlers) - preying on cargo-laden ships has brought in hundreds of millions of dollars in ransom. An upsurge in attacks last year prompted a handful of nations to start sending naval craft to protect shipping interests. Alarm heightened in November when pirates in open waters audaciously seized a giant Saudi Arabian oil tanker carrying 2 million tonnes of crude oil.
China's destroyers will join more than a dozen foreign warships on patrol from Britain, France, Iran, Germany, the US and other nations. Japan is likewise considering sending navy vessels, a move that would require legislation, as the country's pacifist constitution limits its military to strictly defensive activities. China's deployment of battleships to far-flung waters is a momentous event amid great speculation among western analysts about Beijing seeking a blue-water military capability. That the ships may be sailing in the vicinity of those from perennial foe Japan moves circumstances up a notch.
Beijing denies there is anything untoward about its navy-modernisation programme. The arms of the People's Liberation Army have a singular objective of protecting the motherland and its interests, officials stress. But much is being made by western analysts of the mainland's construction of submarines, hospital ships and an aircraft carrier. Some contend the objective is to counter the US domination of the world's oceans. All will become apparent when the destroyers fire on the pirates. At that time, the mould of centuries will be broken and the way cleared for the nation's navy to sail international waters unquestioned. National interest will be the reason, just as the US, Britain and other naval powers explain their warships roving the seas.
We have history to guide us as to what may happen. Piracy was rife through the 17th and 18th centuries, with pirates along the so-called Barbary Coast of North Africa so powerful that they were extorting sizeable chunks of national budgets. In 1794, the then new nation of the United States began building up its navy to counter the threat. When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, he began what has been termed America's first war on terrorism; he found that 20 per cent of the budget was going to what was, in effect, a protection racket, which promptly had him ordering the fledgling navy into battle against the pirates. When peace was agreed in 1815, the US had won respect - and the seeds were sown for its navy to become the world's most powerful.