Roy Stall had the floor this week, and he came to tell us all about the history and development of the Chinese Navy. Roy has a BA in Asian studies from the ANU and has worked in a variety of fields including seven years in the Royal Australian Navy. In the year 2000 he changed direction and started teaching English as a second language, specialising in Maritime English. This took him to Indonesia, Japan and China, and whilst he was in China he visited a number of centres including Shanghai, Qingdao and Dalian - where he was housed in the Foreign Experts Apartment Building. Roy presented us with a slide show that gave a comprehensive overview of the Chinese Navy, and the fascinating images included a huge Chinese junk with eight masts and a Soviet warship in Dalian which is now used as a backpacker hostel. Ships of over 500 tonnes communicate by Maritime English, and so Roy’s knowledge of the language was invaluable to his observations about the development of the Chinese Navy. At one stage China bought an old aircraft carrier from Australia to see how it was structured, and now they have developed their own sophisticated versions. China claims vast areas as territorial zones, meaning for example that they feel free to build naval bases on atolls around the Pacific. China’s total naval assets far exceed those of the USA.
