The aircraft-carrier strike group led by USS Carl Vinson conducting naval and air operations in the South China Sea this week is the first challenge to Beijing’s expansive maritime claims to the waters since Donald Trump took office.
The US Navy announced that the operations began on February 18, describing them as “routine,” while Chinese state media quickly called the warships’ freedom-of-navigation activities a threat to China.
A Pentagon official said the naval maneuvers were not freedom-of-navigation but exercises of the kind the US Navy has been doing for a hundred years.
The exercises were ordered by US Defense Secretary James Mattis, who is said to be concerned that a lack of regular US naval and air maneuvers in the sea has undermined regional stability.
The carrier operations put Beijing on notice that the new president likely will continue US policy in seeking to bolster regional allies that have become increasingly alarmed at China’s assertiveness in the region.
China has been creating islands on a number of atolls and rocky outcrops in the sea, and over the past 12 months has begun adding military facilities.
Subi Reef
Mischief Reef
Hughes Reef
Fiery Cross
US analysts say the Chinese military buildup in the area has been subtle and gradual, and designed to avoid provoking a direct confrontation with Washington.
For example, naval missile emplacements have been spotted on several of China’s new islands in the Spratly archipelago. The missiles seen in intelligence imagery are assessed to have ranges of less than a mile and thus unlikely to threaten passing US warships. Intelligence analysts at the Pentagon, however, noted that the missile emplacements were built to be interchangeable with much more advanced and long-range anti-ship cruise missiles – weapons that would pose threats to US warship patrols through the waters.
Mattis is a staunch believer in Trump’s “Peace through Strength” policies. Thus he is likely to abandon the previous administration’s policy of seeking to avoid upsetting China. That led to a diminution of freedom-of-navigation operations in the South China Sea and elsewhere.
Mattis made clear in policy questions posed during his confirmation by the US Senate that China’s activities required bolstering regional allies in Southeast Asia.
“China’s behavior has led countries in the region to look for stronger US leadership,” he stated, adding that once in office he would seek to strengthen alliances and review US military capabilities in the region.
“We must continue to defend our interests there – interests that include upholding international legal rights to freedom of navigation and overflight,” he added.
Mattis said upholding freedom of navigation and overflight was “vital to the defense of our other national-security interests” – a blunt and direct statement of the strong US commitment to preventing any attempt to turn the South China Sea into a Chinese lake.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also weighed in on the dispute, promising during his confirmation that the United States would block China from further militarizing the islands.
In addition to the Vinson and its warplanes, the guided-missile destroyer USS Meyer is taking part in the South China Sea operations. Strike aircraft that will be flying over the sea include F/A-18 Super Hornet jets, helicopters, and electronic-warfare jets.
Before entering the sea, the ships conducted training off Hawaii and Guam to improve their military capabilities and “develop cohesion as a strike group,” the US Navy said in a statement.
“The training completed over the past few weeks has really brought the team together and improved our effectiveness and readiness as a strike group,” said Rear Admiral James Kilby, the strike-group commander. “We are looking forward to demonstrating those capabilities while building upon existing strong relationships with our allies, partners and friends in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.”
Last week, China’s Foreign Ministry warned the United States against challenging its claims to the waters.
“China respects and upholds the freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea, which countries enjoy under international law, but firmly opposes any country’s attempt to undermine China’s sovereignty and security in the name of the freedom of navigation and overflight,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said.
On Sunday, Global Times, an often strident mouthpiece of China’s Communist Party, said “The deployment of the US aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to the South China Sea on Saturday is a military threat to China.” However, the usually over-the-top anti-US rhetoric of the paper was absent from the recent article. Instead of calling the exercises an act of war or other hostile action, the newspaper stated only that the naval maneuvers would increase the risk of unspecified “interference.”
Retired US Navy Captain Jim Fanell said the carrier deployment was a routine occurrence in the post-World War II US Pacific Fleet.
“Likewise, this carrier strike group’s operations in the South China Sea is neither unprecedented or provocative,” Fanell said. “Quite to the contrary, and despite protests from Beijing, it is encouraging to see the new US administration physically demonstrate America’s continued commitment to the principle of freedom of navigation in international waters.”
Despite all the vigorous chest thumping, everyone knows that the US navy are low morale, indisciplined and incompetent. Submarines from other nations including Sweden, France, China, etc routinely penetrate US carrier battle groups defence perimeters.
Obviously more training is required but it is cheaper to train near to USA and not waste fuel and incur sky high expenses. Does Pentagon knows what it is doing?.
China can afford to be polite in the face of this adolescent display of bullying. It can sink any naval vessel in the West Pacific within minutes and destroy any aircraft within seconds: its defensive suite vastly outguns anything the US can bring to that part of the world. It’s game over, but nobody has informed America yet.
The western audience is really thick: at this age and era, do you still think that Chinese will be intimidated by your gunboats any longer?
Haven’t we learnt enough of Western "exploits" since our defeats at the Opium Wars?
What ia the huge military budget that China allocates for its military meant for ?
Do you (Yanks and its cohorts) think we will eveer let you commit those outrages in the past without paying any price?
American soldiers parading like whores in the South China Sea. Will any client take note of them?
Unfortunately no one dare to take on these giant "whores" . Absolutely NO ONE .
What? Have you even bothered to glance at the map which China has issued which describes their claims to the SCS? It demands a response from anyone who believes in common sense freedom of navigation on the high seas. Typical liberal response which is what causes these types of crisis to develop in the first place.
The US must be prepared to fight Chinese imperialists trying to sieze their neighbors waters.This potential conflict has everything to do with shipping lanes. The area’s greatest value is as a trade route. According to a 2015 Department of Defense report, $5.3 trillion worth of goods moves through the sea every year, which is about 30 percent of global maritime trade. That includes huge amounts of oil and $1.2 trillion worth of annual trade with the United States. All East Asian nations depend upon these sea lanes to import oil from the Middle East and export goods to Europe.
It’s also true that the South China Sea Fisheries are rich resources producing 10% of the worlds catch! The United States Energy Information Agency estimates there are 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in deposits under the sea — more than exists in the reserves of some of the world’s biggest energy exporters.
Finally the South China Sea is important strategically for the Chinese military. The deep waters allow Chinese submarines to evade detection while they patrol the waters. Very important since a new generation of Submarines are coming online that will enable China to have second strike capability against the US in the event of a nuclear exchange.
Gregg Slater
Are you suggesting that it is China which has a plan to blockade the shipping lanes in the SCS? This is a fantasy on many levels. It is the US which has such plans and the means to impliment them.
Don’t believe for a minute that the capabilities of the US Navy are not superior to those of all other navies. The US spends $70 billion on military R&D each year. It has the best weapons in the world and a lot of practice using them.
Its not Chinese waters. Get a clue.
Galen Linder Yes I am suggesting that once China has consolidated it’s fabricated claims to the SCS that it will treat the area as soveriegn territory. That means all nations who want to navigate through the area will be subject to Chinese restrictions. The Chinese will also grab their neighbors oil and steal their fish. They have already engaged in this activity, so it’s not hard to imagine this behavior continuing
Te Yanks are just itching for a punch-up with anyone. Just might get a big sock taking on China, don’t you realise that will bring Russia into the fold, then Nato and oom we got a 3rd World War
A ridiculous statement comrade. If the Chinese have a problem with the US Navy sailing in international waters they should do something about it. You should probably check the correlation of forces as well as the actual capabilities of those forces. China’s entire Navy couldn’t beat one US Carrier strike group. And there are 9 more where that one came from. Our naval aviation was more advanced than theirs 40 years ago. The day they take a shot at us from one of those islands they stole , their whole navy will be at the bottom in 1 day.
Better to engage the Chinese while US bases in Australia are still available (i.e. before Australia becomes a Chinese province).
Take your own advise. The Philippines and the Vietnamese have fished among the Spratleys and Scabarough for hundreds of years. It has been considered Philippine waters until the Chinese over fished and poluted their own waters so bad that they are stealing from others to feed their people. Even the usual useless UN say their is no real evidence to support China’s claim.
Even Putin says the USA is the only real superpower. He has said he will not be bullied but the USA is the superpower. Watch the news, it has been repeated several times where he put a CNN reporter in his place.
It is a new day, & China is facing real men of proven courage, valor & love of duty at the helm of the USA military..their hands are no longer tied behind their backs by a unamerican coward, & they mean to win any confortation.. take heed, China.. they carry a big stick.
You’re an absolute FUKING failure yourself, Shawniw Boi!! You liked the way Obongoloid handeled it??? Run and hid with your tail between you sissy-assed legs?? Or send a fuking letter saying he was concerned?? Wimpy Girl Scout panty-hosed wearing sissy!
Galen Linder Pove it Galen!! IF you can, which we all doubt very mucch!
Godfree Roberts: Where did you come up with your fuking lame-brained wet dream!!?? What a bunch of FAKE NEWS garbage!
You fuking Chinese might spend a lot of money on military, but you fuker are starving your poor, innocent people to death! Enjoy it Commie fuk!
Fei Zhang What are you saying, the lousy fuking Chinese are going to invade Australia now??? You better see a docotr and figure out how to pull the chop sticks, fish heads and rice out of your ass!
Jim Johnson Did anyone think the Japanese were going to bomb Darwin or attack Pearl Harbor, before those events occurred? Does anyone really think that if the Japanese had won the Battle of the Coral Sea, IJA troops wouldn’t have landed in Australia?
Compared to China, Japan had a limited history of territorial expansion. http://www.timemaps.com/history/china-1500bc/ And pre-war Japan was at the limit of its logistical capabilities, with 1/9 the industrial output of the US alone whereas today’s China has, in PPP GDP terms, overtaken the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)
Members of the Australian public who think the Chinese are cuddly pandas have taken a vacation from history. Aussie pols from both parties are better informed, and that is why they have, in recent years, sought closer military ties with the US. Because the Japanese, using technology that was backward compared to the US and the European powers of the time, overran American and European holdings in the Far East within 6 months of Pearl Harbor. This was a Japan with a far smaller economy, and 1/2 the population of the US.
Australia can bury its head in the sand or it can buy an insurance policy through increased defense expenditures and arrangements for a significant American force in the country via some kind of cost-sharing agreement.
Your English is incomprehensible.
oh yeah ?.. ken nguyen. will you and all chinese friends of yours are willing to try the us navy ?
it is a poker mind game, now us navy has thrown in all the chips, i would like the chinese navy to place her bets !
come on down…make my day !
yes, michael…all the whores are carrying deadly virus, thousands times more potent than avian flu and aids combined….want to mess with ?