Russian soldiers will again set foot on China's Liaotung Peninsula, a hundred years since the Russo-Japanese war ended in 1905. The legendary fortress Port Arthur, which was celebrated in many early 20th-century songs, and the Dalny merchant seaport were located there. The former is now known as Lushun, a Chinese naval base where strategic and attack submarines are stationed, and modern-day Dalian is renowned for height No. 203.6 overlooking the port and the naval base.
A combined Russian detachment of over 4,000 men under the command of Colonel Tretyakov heroically defended that height 100 years ago, at a cost of 12,000 men for the Japanese army. The dead included two sons of Admiral Heihachiro Togo, whose forces stormed height No. 203.6. The loss of this strategic sector decided the outcome of the battle of Port Arthur and enabled Japanese forces to seize the entire Liaotung Peninsula. Chinese officers told me that China's military academies still analyze the heroic Russian defense of height No. 203.6 and the Japanese operations.
General of the Army Yury Baluyevsky, chief of the Russian General Staff, and his Chinese counterpart Liang Guanglie recently agreed to hold a tactical troop exercise there this fall 2005. This exercise will be far smaller than anything seen in the Russo-Japanese war.
Exercise plans have not yet been drafted completely. No one will disclose them ahead of schedule because the war games would then be pointless. Both attackers and defenders will face unexpected situations and the forthcoming war games will clearly not repeat the previous war's scenario for several reasons. First of all, the exercise will involve relatively small forces with about 200 soldiers on each side, or two full-strength companies with attached and support weapons.
Russia will also commit amphibious-landing ships and even Tu-22M3 strategic bombers (NATO reporting name, Backfire-C), as well as Tu-22MR naval reconnaissance planes, which for obvious reasons were not around in the early 20th century. It took the Japanese almost a year to capture Port Arthur, but the forthcoming exercise will last for just over seven days. Nonetheless, both armies hope to gain ample experience.
First of all, Russian and Chinese servicemen will exchange training and troop-control experience. It should be mentioned here that Russia and China have the strongest armies in the continental Far East. China's air force and navy wield Russian-made Sukhoi Su-27 and Su-30 fighters, Mk 956 Sovremenny-class destroyers (NATO reporting name, Balkom-2), as well as Mk 633 and Mk 877-EKM Varshavyanka-class submarines (NATO reporting names, Romeo and Kilo). Russian generals will naturally be interested to learn more about their Chinese colleagues' tactics with these weapons systems. The Chinese side, which hopes to buy T-22M3 bombers and Tu-22MR reconnaissance aircraft from Russia, wants to assess their performance.
But this is not the most important aspect. A number of Russian-Chinese troop exercises have already taken place. China and Russia, as well as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, are members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which sets combating terrorism as one of its objectives. Both Moscow and Beijing see this as an important problem, as Chechnya and Sinkiang remain problem regions that law enforcers have to monitor closely. The two countries will profit from exhanging experience with regard to preventing and thwarting separatist and terrorist operations.
Russian military experts are surprised that some Western media reports have portrayed the bilateral troop exercise as a "rehearsal" for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. What do the Liaotung Peninsula and Formosa have in common? How can operations involving 200 officers and soldiers, even with bombers and patrol ships, be a dry run for an invasion of an island that has a population of 20 millionand a powerful army? Given that China has held exercises with Pakistan, France and India in the past two years, why Russia's involvement has suddenly caused suspicion?
These unscrupulous and provocative conjectures are evidently down to one reason: fear of close Russian-Chinese cooperation, military cooperation included. Advocates of a unipolar world do not like the thought of it. However, Russia, China and other countries, such as France, Germany and Spain, will hardly agree to this world order. Not one of them suspects Beijing of harboring any aggressive intentions, while they all see a Chinese State Council's decision on the inadmissibility of national territories seceding as the country's legitimate sovereign right. China may even use force to prevent such secession.
Beijing invariably attaches priority to peaceful solutions in reclaiming its territories, such as Hong Kong and Macao.
At any rate, the Russian-Chinese exercise in October has nothing to do with this issue. From the historical viewpoint, 21st century global geostrategy can no longer hinge on ill conceived and irresponsible Russian, Japanese and other imperialist policies of the early 20th century. Today, geostrategy can only rely on combating common threats using multi-faceted cooperation and must heed national interests.
A simulated amphibious landing will take place during the exercise and defensive operations will also be conducted on the peninsula. Still I am sure that there will be another episode. Russian officers and soldiers will visit height No. 203.6 and lay flowers at a monument that the Japanese built in admiration for the enemies' courage.
A WWII Soviet anti-aircraft gun and a 1950s' radar antenna can be seen standing nearby, as a reminder that a Soviet unit landed on the height in 1945, while liberating China from Japanese occupation. A Soviet radio-technical company was also stationed here until 1955. The following inscription "Demobbing Inevitable" was scribbled on the gun carriage in 1956 by a certain Nikolai from Voronezh.
Symbolically, Russian soldiers will once again be able to visit that height where their heroic ancestors spilled their blood.
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