China Naval Power

For what geopolitical purpose would they have boats? The Japanese were divided into many warring kingdoms separated occasionally by straits and so every kingdom with a coastline had a few warships, meaning the whole of Japan had many. The Koreans had to deal with the Japanese at sea or else be defeated on land.

But the Chinese were a massive land empire. All of their targets for expansion were connected to the Chinese by land. They had a long coastline, sure, but no enemies which could threaten a naval invasion, knowing that the Chinese army would be waiting for them upon arrival. So why even bother with boats?

Pirates, for one. And a non-insignificant number of islands themselves.

What is their problem

there´s oil and gas there

rude as heck though

Don't forget the fish

Not for long!

>islands should belong to the nearest country

The Falklands weren't within the EEZ of the Argentines though

Funnily enough, Japan wasn't considered a real naval power until 1895/1905. Only the Koreans can be considered to have a real naval tradition before the modern era.

Koreans are fucking gay so it doesn't really matter anymore, though.

but y tho? I keep hearing that about the koreans and it makes as much sense to me as why they keep getting gold in archery.

Because almost invariably countries are considered naval powers when their navy is their main source of power projection, not merely when they have a powerful navy. China relied on its army more than its navy to enforce its will upon its neighbours.

It was, but not so much state-sponsored. Local authorities ended up building some powerful fleets, but the Imperial government was distracted by overland threats to the north and west, so Imperial resources were focused on building land power instead.

True, but secondary. The main reason China needs to stake a claim is because most of their maritime trade runs through that sea. If they don't control it, then the USA will take it over and starve them. The natural resources narrative is pushed by the USA in order to distract from the real issue.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the US and their allies basically being able to block the entire East China Sea

The first and second island chains are (or were until recently) key US allies or US territory creating a huge defensive ring in the pacific containing China (and Russia).
China wants to gurantee access to international trade routes, even if war breaks out, and thus shattering the US island defence chain and establish Anti-Access and Area Denial defenses is a key to China's long term defence strategy.
China seeks to stake out a claim now, as the longer they are there the more normalised and legitimate their presence will be.
There's also a fear that a soft presence in the SCS will embolden actors in other areas like the Senkaku island dispute, Cross-straight relations or Xijiang

>youtube.com/watch?v=j4WuAcn9FoE

Mainly because information is limited.

Nah, whats more important is national propaganda claims.

are you seriously posting some ancient aliens tier burger TV "documentary" as proof

If you ignore the delusional white hill billies near the end who were into dousing, the rest of the video isn't really that controversial.

The video discusses the supposed discovery of America by the Chinese fleet wreck, but in the video itself the critic debunks this.

Whether they reached America or not is irrelevant. What is relevant is they built a fleet to go exploring around. They did explore around the Pacific down to Australia, found nothing worthy of their attention, turned back home, let their fleet rot in the docks and reaffirmed themselves on the classic chinese motto 'beyond China there be monkeys and barbarians'.

Exactly, Australia should belong to New Zealand.