The role of sea power in People Republic of China's challenge to USA's global hegemony

This study examines how People's Republic of China (PRC-China) challenges USA's global hegemony in contemporary world politics through a focus on "Sea Power". By doing so it attempts to explain and for see power transition today and in the near future in the international system. The study analyses power transition especially in the Far East within the framework of "sea hegemony" by focusing on China's rising sea power. Thus, it answers "Why Sea Power" for China, which is supposed to harbour ambitions for being a global power. This study discusses why PRC attributes great importance to sea power within a theoretical framework which bases sea power under regional and even global hegemony. It conceives PRC's great investments in sea forces as an important part of its competition with the USA for a regional and global hegemony on the basis of the assumption that sea power underlies regional and global hegemony both in the past and at present. This study examines why China needs sea power primarily from a historical perspective. It has shown that China had always historically been vulnerable to western colonial excursions from the sea mainly because it had not developed a strong sea power. Taking lessons from its own colonial history, China attempts to build a strong navy and sea power today. Achieving a high growing economy and a rapid development in the recent past, PRC employs sea power not just for defensive but also for offensive purposes. For now, China challenges USA regional and global hegemony by developing a sea hegemony at least in its own region. For this purpose, it invests heavily in sea forces in order to catch up with USA sea power, just as it competes with USA hegemony in Far East Asia by attempting both to construct "A New Asian Identity" and to get its own solutions to regional questions accepted through sea power.