The Next Treasure Fleet

[Kingdom of Ireland]

Inside a meeting room in Zhongnanhai, some of the most powerful men in China look at each other across the table, while members of the Ministry of Public Security stand guard at the corners of the room. The men are President Hu Jintao, Chairman of the Kuomintang Chiang Ching-kuo, Finance Minister Hsu Li-teh, Chief of the General Staff Sun Li-jen, Minister of Defense Hau Pei-tsun, and Commander of the Navy Admiral Zou Jian. After the raid on shipping headed for China, these men have called a meeting at the behest of Hu Jintao to discuss just how limited in response they could be due to the size of their navy. While all the requests for their presence referred to this as a 'meeting', the men were well aware of Hu Jintao's personality. The historically young Hu, aged only 36, was known across the political sphere as an incredibly vibrant and energetic politician. This 'meeting' would likely be little more than Hu discussing his idea relevant to these parties and how to implement it, looking more for feedback than original ideas.

Gentlemen, a day of reckoning has come for China's image. Our trade has been threatened, while our navy is barely able to conduct operations near our own waters, let alone across the Indian Ocean and project power outwards. We are reliant on other nations with greater navies than ours to protect our interests which is a situation that cannot continue. Of course, each of the areas you gentlemen oversee will be integral to this plan. Firstly Chairman Chiang, I will naturally be relying on you to ensure party unity on this subject.

Chiang Ching-kuo, the son of revolutionary leader Chiang Kai-Shek had ran the Chinese government himself for a short period in transition between his aging father and Hu Jintao. Now he was in semi-retirement as the Chairman of the Kuomintang and largely used his position to ensure party unity as a projected image.
Of course, Hu. I'm certain the memory of my father and Sun Yat Sen will be inspiration enough. They did not fight a war for us to be at the whim of foreigners again.

Hu then turned his attention to the three representatives of his armed forces.
Minister, General and Admiral. I ask of you to generate a defined modern naval doctrine for us to follow. I don't want the nation to waste countless funds on a navy that has no rhyme or reason to its purpose. Before we can start expanding our navy we must know what we are expanding towards. I entrust this matter to you three.

The three military men look towards each other, silently contemplating their own ideas of what a greater Chinese navy would look like. Admiral Zou speaks.
Mr President, I will eagerly work with my partners here to develop new doctrines for our navy to follow.
I am sure we each have our own goals for a greater Chinese navy, perhaps the best option would be for us to provide multiple options for our future goals.
I myself can see multiple avenues for a future Chinese navy that benefits the national interest. I am sure we can create multiple viable options for a security council to decide upon.

President Hu nods and turns his head to his Finance Minister. Minister Hsu, this leaves us with yoru part in all this. In order to expand the naval forces, I require additional funds to create this new navy. Obviously we have no theoretical budget for this expansion yet, but for now I ask you to begin looking at where we may be able to draw funds from to create a new Chinese navy.

Of course, Mr. President. I'll prepare a committee to find the funds. Hsu silently worried. Perhaps due to Hu's age, or is ideology or both, the Chinese government had rapidly been spending money. Hsu wasn't worried about the spending itself, moreso the economic growth associated. The extensive spending and investment had jump started the economy, but a global economic crisis may implode the government budget. Hsu was more reserved in his spending goals than Hu, but still trusted his President's judgement and committed himself to finding the funds.

President Hu looked across the table at his subordinates. He sometimes couldn't believe the position he was in at his age, and at moments like this he was thankful to be where he was. He glanced over at Chiang Ching-kuo, the man who supported his ascent to President and briefly smirked.
Thank you all for your time. I wish you all the best.

[Kingdom of Ireland]

Admiral Zou Jian sits with Defense Minister Hau Pei-tsun and Chief of the General Staff Sun Li-jen. Each of them have agreed for this meeting to bring a petition for what the future Chinese Navy should look like. Naturally, they each have brought their own independent concepts to discuss.

Gentlemen, unless there is objection I will begin with my proposition.

Admiral Zou looks around, but both Minister Hau and General Sun both seem to accept the Admiral's request to begin.

Very well. I would like to propose for consideration a modernized fleet-in-being doctrine built around capital fleets, supporting powerful and interoperable groups which can be built into anything from strong patrols to large warfleets, being able to project power as equally well as protecting China's coasts. Zangqu and Zheng classes will be able to provide capital power in the modern naval fight, while Qingdao and Canlan classes alone would be able to provide acceptable screening and patrol capabilities. Still, should this plan be accepted I would push for new cruiser and destroyer designs to better reflect needs of a large fleet with greater specialization since the current Qingdao and Canlan classes were designed to be jack-of-all-trade ships in their classes due to our limited size and budget. For the time being, we could begin an expansion under this plan immediately due to usage of current designs while developing new designs for future specialized cruisers and destroyers.

Admiral Zou nods to the two gentlemen, and sits. General Sun stands next.

Thank you Admiral. I think the idea of fleet-in-being is important to a future Chinese navy, however I believe a focus on carrier groups is of large importance. The President has requested a large focus of the result of this meeting will be a navy with the capacity to project power and no vessel is a greater power projector than a large aircraft carrier. Using capital fleet ships such as the Zangqu and Zheng are great for domestic protection, but putting our effort into developing a series of carrier groups with large hangers for significant aircraft capacity should be of the highest importance.

Gentlemen, Minister Hau began, At the risk of sounding foolish, I don't believe the focus should be on fleet-in-being. Our goal should be pushing out as many vessels as we can to have overwhelming force against our enemies. Capital fleets are too susceptible to anti ship missiles and poke holes too large to be acceptable once removed from a fleet. Having large fleets of smaller cruisers and destroyers, accompanied by a large flotilla of submarines, makes our navy too numerous to easily remove from play in the event of a large scale war with peers.

Calmly, debate began between the three men, making compromises and debating on importance of certain goals to create a naval plan which all three may collectively present to the President.

[Kingdom of Ireland]

After significant debate, the three men come to a conclusion. The following is their combined plan which is submitted to President Hu.

A Proposition to the President of the Republic of China Concerning the ROC Navy
Presented by the Temporary Naval Council

Section 1
The Council advises the creation of two Carrier groups for the purpose of power projection beyond East Asia. Each group will contain one carrier, one cruiser, and 3 destroyers.
Section 1a
The design of the carrier must be able to contain at least 80 aircraft (rotary and fixed-wing), with a maximum 100,000 tonne displacement.
Section 1b
Carriers will be outfitted with as-yet undesigned carrier-capable aircraft, a multirole combat aircraft as well as a heavier fighter aircraft. Naval R&D is advised, alongside private Chinese investment
Section 1c
Please see Section x for discussion on surface vessel designs

Section 2
The Council advises the creation of a series of capital groups for power projection in East Asia, centered around the preexisting Zheng-Class and Zangqu-Class. All capital groups would have one Zheng-Class and some groups would contain a Zangqu-Class.
Section 2a
Each capital group will contain 2 cruisers and 4 destroyers
Section 2b
Please see Section x for discussion on surface vessel designs

Section 3
The Council advises the creation of a large series of small patrol groups, to project light power in stead of a capital group and prevent disruptions to East Asian trade.
Section 3a
Each patrol group will be made of 1 cruiser and 1 destroyer

Section 4
The Council advises the expansion of the flotillas of the Navy, increasing by the following:

• SLBM count to 10
• Cruise count to 10
• Attack Flotilla count to 15

Section 5
The Council advises the design of new destroyers and a new cruiser. For the escort roles as part of the capital and carrier groups, dedicated Anti-Air and Anti-Submarine destroyers should be designed. A dedicated Escort Cruiser should be designed as well.
Section 5a
Current designs used in the cruiser and destroyer role, designed to be largely self-sufficient, are adequate for patrol roles

[Kingdom of Ireland]

President Hu reads over the short proposal, before placing the paper down on the desk in front of him.
I assume you are looking for authority to begin practical advancement on this plan?
Hu looks at the faces of the men in front of him, but speaks before any of them can articulate a response.
I like it. I authorize the Navy to find contractors to develop the designs that are required for our expansion. I hope to get this project underway as soon as possible. There are stirrings in the South China Sea, and I want to show something public once this is underway. I can't have the Mexicans or those southern Theocrats eyeing our territories.