December 18, 2008

BEIJING — One day after a Chinese cargo ship's crew used Molotov cocktails and water hoses to fight off an attempted pirate hijacking off the coast of Somalia, the Chinese navy announced it would send warships to the Gulf of Aden in their first major mission outside the Pacific.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said Beijing welcomed stronger international cooperation in countering piracy, which has become a major problem in the waters off the Somali coast. "We are making preparations and arrangements to deploy naval ships to the Gulf of Aden for escorting operations," Liu said, without elaborating on details of the mission.


The Global Times, a newspaper published by the Communist Party, said the fleet could consist of two cruisers and one large supply ship. A U.N. resolution unveiled Tuesday outlines a framework whereby nations whose ships have been attacked can pursue them by land and via Somali airspace if they first talk to the transitional Somali authorities. A U.S. State Department official said the U.S. has no problem with China "deploying its assets."

"China, like a number of other countries, has decided that we as an international community must act," the official said. For the Chinese navy, which has mainly concentrated on the country's coastal defense, it would mark the first time it has been involved in multilateral operations in modern times, said Christian LeMiere, a senior analyst for Jane's Country Risk, a security intelligence group.