A trio of Chinese warships departed the Port of Zhanjiang in Guangdong province last week and are now on their way to the Gulf of Aden.
There is nothing unusual about this deployment as the three vessels are going to replace three other ships that are taking part in the UN-led anti-piracy operations that have been going since 2014.
There is no indication whatsoever that this standard rotation is in any way linked to the worsening maritime crisis in the Red Sea, where Iran-backed Houthi militants are attacking international cargo vessels.
But you wouldn’t know that from reading the headlines in the UAE state-backed newspaper The National or the London-based pan-Arab news service Asharq Al-Awsat that were among a number of outlets that incorrectly linked this latest deployment to what’s happening in the Red Sea.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? This kind of misreporting is quite common in Middle Eastern media, where knowledge about China is low. The consequence of this kind of misinformation is that it leads to larger misreadings of Chinese military and political intentions in the region.
SUGGESTED READING:
- The Wire China: Dawn Murphy on China’s Growing Influence in the Middle East and Africa by Andrew Peaple
- The National: What is China’s real position on the Israel-Gaza war? by Andrea Ghiselli and Mohamed Alsudairi
