The Empire strikes back!!

Nowadays one of the inevitable check points for the goods transportation is the Suez Canal. The Horn of Africa is yet a hostile zone. Somali pirates are prowling along the coast and attacking the merchant ships approaching or just cruising along the shores.

Last year, more than a hundred merchant ships were accosted, hijacked and overpowered. The amount of the ransom reached more than 30 million Euros!

But now, exporting countries are not willing to accept this situation anymore. The first of them is China, one of the main exporters to the Aden Golf. During the year 2008, 7 Chinese merchant ships have been attacked. A task force was created in order to secure the area and to escort the Chinese merchant ships. This task force consists of two destroyers Haikou and Wuhan, a supply ship, 800 crew members and 70 Special Forces.
But this has a political aim. China, with this demonstration, shows to the other countries that they became a global player. Last time that the Chinese Navy shipped fare away from its shores was during the 15st century under the command of Admiral Zheng He. So it's pretty much an event in itself! The mission of this task force could last 3 month.

With what happened to the Sirius Star (3 million euro ransom plus 8 weeks of negotiations), we can imagine that other countries will adopt the same policy against the piracy.