The PLA at Home and Abroad - Strategic Studies Institute - U.S. Army

crisis, as they would be harming regional interests in
the process. 189 Greater access to regional port facilities
may be one outcome of China’s soft power initiatives.
For several years now, China has been developing
a number of what Kamphausen and Liang refer
to as “access points,” or “friendly locations” that are
intended to enhance the PLA’s ability to project power
in Asia. 190 Pakistan’s port of Gwadar and Sri Lanka’s
port of Hambantota represent possible candidates.
China has invested significantly in their development,
and has made contributions over the years to
the welfare of their host governments in the areas of
politics, economics, and infrastructure. 191 Perhaps the
PLAN is making greatest progress in Burma, where it
has reportedly assisted in the construction of several
naval facilities (their precise nature undefined) on the
Bay of Bengal. 192 A major entrepôt sitting astride key
transit lanes, with a large ethnic Chinese population
and good relations with the PRC, and with its primary
security concerns Malaysia and Indonesia, not
a rising China, Singapore might ultimately allow the
PLAN some form of access. 193 Table 6 details tentatively
some of the potential ports to which the PLAN
might attempt to gain some form of special, if limited,
access in the future.
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