Mao For Power Projection

Christian Science Monitor Global News blog has a post up with analysis of 2 polls in China regarding... What to name China's first aircraft carrier.

Neutral names, such as Beijing or Shanghai, don’t appeal to people at all. More popular are the names of islands, such as Taiwan, Diaoyu, or Nansha.

This is awkward, though, because what they all have in common is that they are disputed territory. Taiwan is de facto independent, Diaoyu is known as Senkaku in Japan, and Nansha is better known as the Spratlys, a sprinkle of islands claimed not only by China, but also the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Brunei.

On the other hand, naming an aircraft carrier - which would be the jewel of China’s naval crown - for a disputed island fits well with the general principles that respondents to the polls thought should guide the choice.

Thirty percent thought the name should “present China’s comprehensive national strength.” Only 6.9 percent wanted to “avoid the impression of a military threat.”

But which was the runaway favorite in two polls conducted earlier this month? Mao Zedong.

Casual observers could get caught up in this, but it all sounds very British to me. Nelson's flagship was HMS Victory, the implication being he had no intention of ever losing. HMS Warspite fought at Jutland, and even the light aircraft carriers the Royal Navy fielded in the cold war was the Invincible-class aircraft carriers. Names like Resolution, Vanguard, Warrior, and Revenge were ship names that embodied the spirit of the Royal Navy.

In 1907, upon completion of the worlds most powerful ship, the British named her HMS Dreadnought to insure the rest of the world got the message regarding the ships military might.

It isn't just the British though, place a pitcher of beer in the middle of a round table of retired naval officers, particularly naval aviators, and I assure you the only thing that will be concluded in a naming debate of US Navy aircraft carriers by the time the beer is gone is that naming aircraft carriers after Presidents is a mistake... but other than that, the debate will not be settled.

In the fine tradition of first rate power naval power projection, for the Chinese - the name Mao fits.