US Navy to Increase Presence in South China Sea
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by Konstantin Bodragin
US Navy to increase its presence in South China Sea, said a US official, who was not authorised to speak publicly on the issue. The US plans to conduct regular patrols within a contested area of the South China Sea, to remind China and other countries about US rights under international law.
“We’re going to come down to about twice a quarter or a little more than that,” the official said. “That’s the right amount to make it regular but not a constant poke in the eye. It meets the intent to regularly exercise our rights under international law and remind the Chinese and others about our view,” he added.
Further confirmation of US commitment to securing its interest in the face of growing Chinese hostility came from US Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, who said “That’s our interest there … It’s to demonstrate that we will uphold the principle of freedom of navigation.”
The comments come in the wake of a period of increased activity in the region. Last week USS Lassen, a guided-missile destroyer, performed an approach of Subi Reef – part of the artificial archipelago constructed by China to stake its claim on much of the South China Sea. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan all have rival claims.
In an apparent response to what Beijing sees as US provocation, Chinese jets performs training exercises over parts of the disputed waters near Vietnam. The South China Morning Post reports the airplanes, armed with missiles, operated out of an airstrip on Woody Island in the Paracel archipelago. “It’s a signal China sent to the US that it is serious about its claims,” Xu Guangyu, a retired Chinese general, told the Post. “This is the minimum level of response China should have, or it will fail the expectation of its people.”
The Paracels, together with Spartly Islands to the southeast, have been occupied and expanded by China as part of the longstanding territorial dispute. $5 trillion of world trade transits through the contested area.
US Vice Admiral John Aquilino, deputy chief of naval operations for operations, plans and strategies, declined to elaborate on the specific nature of the planned patrols. “We do operations like that all the time around the world. That will continue for us,” he told Reuters. “We’ll just keep going.”
Washington has declared no official position regarding issues of sovereignty in the region. The sail-by was meant to reaffirm US right to “fly, sail, and operate whenever and wherever international law allows,” said Admiral Harry Harris in a speech at the Stanford Center at Peking University.
In a meeting meant to dissipate the tension, China’s naval commander warned his US counterpart that a minor incident could spark war in the South China Sea.
US attempts to prevent Chinese militarisation of the South China Sea while maintaining an active fleet in the area is perceived as “an attempt to deprive China of its self-defense right as a sovereign state”, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said. “It is a typical manifestation of hypocrisy and hegemonism.”
Despite bellicose declarations, Rhodes insisted the goal was to resolve the dispute by means of a diplomatic framework. Likewise, Harris, who is the commander of US Pacific Command, softened his remarks, praising US-China ties and pointing out the frequent visits by the opposing countries’ warships in each other’s ports.
While an active flare-up in the near future seems unlikely, despite efforts on both sides the Sea remains far from calm.
