China’s rising assertiveness in the South China Sea has provoked a concerted pushback from the United States and its key allies, with Japan and the United Kingdom lending their naval assets to recent stepped up maneuvers that have put the contested maritime region on a new edge.
The US military flew B-52 bombers close to the South China Sea earlier this week, a deployment US Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Dave Eastburn claimed was a “regularly scheduled operation designed to enhance our interoperability with our partners and allies in the region.”
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, however, underscored the importance of the operation by emphasizing the threat posed by China’s recent militarization of disputed land features in the South China Sea. Some analysts believe China is arming up the features to establish a strategic aerial defense identification zone (ADIZ) over the waters.
“If that was 20 years ago and (China) had not militarized those features there, it would have just been another [routine] bomber on its way to Diego Garcia or whatever [in the Indo-Pacific area],” the American defense secretary told reports when asked about the relevance of the B-52 flyovers close to the contested areas.
Japan, a key US ally, has been among the major regional powers to take the lead against China, recently conducting (September 26) a high-profile joint naval exercise with the United Kingdom. The exercises in the Indian Ocean, en route to the South and East China Seas, involved Japan’s flagship warship, the giant Kaga helicopter carrier, the Japanese destroyer Inazuma and British frigate HMS Argyle.
Over the past month, Japan’s Marine Self-Defense Forces (JMSDF) armada has made port calls at various strategically situated countries, including the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and India.
En route to the Philippines from Japan, the Japanese helicopter carrier and two guided-missile destroyers this month held joint naval exercises with the US Navy’s Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier strike group.
The bilateral drills included joint maneuvering procedures, sailing in formation and replenishment-at-sea training, as well as the exchange of naval liaison officers. Sailing side-by-side, the two allies’ navies sent a muscular message of growing maritime cooperation against China’s recent moves to militarize and dominate the region.
The US-led counterbalance has so far been well-received in the region. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, known for his China-leaning diplomacy, conspicuously visited the Japanese helicopter carrier when it docked at his country’s Subic naval facility on September 1.
Local media portrayed Japan as a source of security and stability in the South China Sea’s tempestuous waters, where the Philippines and China are at loggerheads, including over the crucial Scarborough Shoal.
Beijing took administrative control of the feature situated in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) after a months-long standoff in 2012. Analysts say the shoal will be a key link in the strategic chain if China eventually moves to enforce an ADIZ over the area.
To some, Duterte’s visit to the Japanese warship underscored the enduring influence of Tokyo as a key strategic partner to Southeast Asian countries, many of which are now starting to reevaluate their recently rising but historically up-and-down relations with China.
The UK, another top US strategic ally, has also stepped up its efforts to challenge China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea, a crucial waterway through which as much as US$5 trillion worth of global trade passes each year.
Last month, the UK’s Royal Navy’s HMS Albion, a 22,000-ton amphibious warship, sailed close to China’s claimed Paracel Islands in the area, features contested with Vietnam which Beijing has heavily militarized in recent years.
In April, Australian warships also sailed in the same contested area, which, according to Australian defense authorities, was part of efforts to “continue to exercise rights under international law to freedom of navigation and overflight, including in the South China Sea.”
Countering Chinese criticism of the move, then Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the sail-by was “our perfect right in accordance with international law.”
A spokesman for the UK’s Royal Navy similarly defended the HMS Albion’s latest maneuver in the South China Sea as “exercise[ing] her rights for freedom of navigation in full compliance with international law and norms.”
China, however, has taken a tougher line against the UK’s freedom of navigation operations. It recently deployed a frigate and two helicopters to challenge the British warship, leading to a standoff that Beijing portrayed as a justified response to what it saw as a clear case of “provocation.”
China’s Foreign Ministry accused Britain of “infring[ing] on China’s sovereignty” and “strongly urge[d] the British side to immediately stop such provocative actions, to avoid harming the broader picture of bilateral relations and regional peace and stability. Beijing warned that it “will continue to take all necessary measures to defend its sovereignty and security.”
Beijing’s main mouthpiece newspaper the China Daily warned in a recent editorial that “[a]ny act that harms China’s core interests will only put a spanner in the works” towards a “top-notch” post-Brexit trade agreement between Beijing and London.
In a speech at the annual Induction Program for Commonwealth Diplomats last week, China’s Ambassador to the UK Liu Xiaoming focused his criticism on the US, accusing it and its allies of using “the excuse of so-called ‘freedom of navigation’” to “show off their military might” in a “serious infringement upon China’s sovereignty.”
He accused the West of putting “regional peace and stability in jeopardy” through its failure to “appreciate the peace and tranquility in the South China Sea.”
Ren Guoqiang, China’s defense ministry spokesman, adopted a similar line, arguing that thanks to “joint efforts of China and [Southeast Asian] countries, the situation in the South China Sea has been stabilized and maintains a positive momentum.”
The Chinese defense official accused “some countries outside this region” of “choos[ing] to ignore it and continue to send warships to the South China Sea to stir up trouble.” He said such moves threaten peace and go “against the collective will and efforts of the countries in this region.”
The US and its key allies, however, see China as a source of trouble and instability in the region, and are gradually forging a coalition of like-minded maritime powers to keep the maritime area free for all nations’, not just China’s, sailing vessels.
I’m siding with the Allies on this one.
Yashad Rizvi "much bigger weapons"??? Old WWII technology weapons, while China has future weapons, i.e., hypersonic weapons, railgun, laser weapons,… B-52s at 500 miles per hour, and aircraft carriers and Naval ships at 40 knots cannot get away from today’s missiles. Uncle Sam can huff and puff all he wants, he’s just wasting his time and energy while China sits back and enjoys watching Uncle Sam making a fool of himself!!!!
China is building a 600 ships navy is because ASEAN nations cannot united together to kick the agitators, the American, the unrepentant war criminal Japanese and their ex colonial masters out of the South China Sea to protect the peace and prosperity of region, so China is forced to step in to fill the SCS security gap and make sure these agitators obey the rules and laws in the SCS region.
Before WWII, the American is just one of the Western imperialists ravaged and wreaked havoc of Asia with barbaric wars, illicit drugs like Opium, slavery, stealing, robbing, looting, plundering, murdering, torturing, exploiting, polluting, culture genocide, ‘pious’ fanaticism, unmatchable greed and extreme brutality. In fact it is hard to tell the difference between the American and the unrepentant war criminal Japanese who is more lethal and barbaric to Asians until the Pearl Harbour incident.
For over seventy years the US has dominated Asia, ravaging the continent with two major wars in Korea and Indo-China with millions of casualties, and multiple counter-insurgency interventions in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Timor, Myanmar, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Having enough guns to blow these agitators into pieces and turn their ships and planes into Davy Jones’ Lockers is a good deed for the peace and prosperity of the SCS region.
Yashad Rizvi, Malaysia does not belong to Malay, Malay should be kicked back to Indonesia. Malaysia belongs to Chinese pioneers. China has naval capacity to ship all the Malays back to Indonesia, while there are no more British and their Aussie lackeys to rescue the Malays from exile, if they come they will be sent to bottom of South China Sea by the Chinese big guns or missiles, the British and Aussie warships are tiny like toothpicks.
WHAT YEAR IS THIS1850/1900/1941?? NAVAL POWER IS DONE!! CHINA HAS THE HYPERSONIC NUCLEAR MISSILES TO TAKE OUT THOSE BEHEMOTH CARRIERS AND MAKE THEM USLESS.IMAGINE TODAY PEOPLE ACTING AS ITS THE AFORE MENTION YRS.
Jo Kang. Thanks for highlighting this. The British forced the population to leave so that a US military base could be built there. It’s called the ‘Special Relationship’.
Chen Lai. See comment below for Perry Kamat.
Richard Kee. I don’t think so. What about the US-USSR Cuban missile crisis? Then the many false alarms both in the Soviet & US systems – with nuclear war only prevented when operators ignored system read outs.
Perry Kamat. It’s an analogy. If you are standing up to a ‘Big Bully’ (in your language) then if you have been an even bigger bully, who will believe your motivation? Is it hypocrisy? We’re talking about islands & shoals. What about the CIA-sponsored Bay of Bigs invasion of Cuba with CIA-supplied bombers attacking Cuba. Then the US naval blockade of Cuba in 1962. Was that freedom of the seas? The problem is every nation guards its ‘backyard’. The powerful use force, intimidating or occupying the weak. I’m not talking about any rights or wrongs.
World War III is coming, and it will be started by China.
Blablablabla
Hahaha. All these supporters of US hegemony with one guy even claiming China is destroying the environment of the SC Sea. The US destroyed the Marshall Islands and permanently poisoned the S Pacific thru more than 1,000 nuclear tests in the area and nuclear materials currently leaking into the Pacific from a concrete tomb poisoning the S Pacific and the people.
Australia and N Zealand welcome this poisoning but complain about China in the SC Sea.
SEAsia and China, with the exception of Japan always solve their problems amicably and peacefully. Once the westerners, especially the US are involved, there will be no peace.
This is very obvious from the countless coups and regime changes and the endless wars in Africa, the Mid East and Afghanistan inflicted by the US.
Very insecure Mr Yashad Rizvi!
Joe Taylor A simple Google search will show US did it with help of vassal UK.
Jo Kang that was the british who did that. It is a British territory.
I agree. This is the way it should be. Indeed, as an American, I would be outraged if foreign powers sailed half way round the world so they could parade a flotilla of naval vessels in the Caribbean Sea. The South China Sea belongs to China; the Caribbean Sea belongs to the USA.
Bullshit!
Abdul Rob : Yaar. What we are talking about now is behaviour of Big Bully in South China Sea that is China ???? , and not in Midle East!
they are only claiming freedom of passage & navigation in the international waters od South china Sea. that is all.
Behbeh China is jes flexin its muscle..
Jes as d european Powers colonise d world now its china..cos d asean nation a small.. d sea belong to dis region not china.. One can see er arrogance ignorin others right.. Its d wealth beneath dat worth it.. A new arrogant colonisin power on d rise