For the US, Sailing Around the South China Sea Is Not Strategy
US naval excursions are temporary response to Beijing's permanent islands and equipment in the South China Sea
China is intent on dominating the entire South China Sea, including sections claimed by neighboring nations like the Philippines and Vietnam. The coercion has caught the United States off guard. Using tracking systems and military installations, “China has set the stage to turn areas around its near seas … into what some are calling a ‘no-man’s land’ for U.S. naval vessels and aircraft,” writes Harry J. Kazianis, a senior fellow for defense policy at the Center for the National Interest and a senior editor at The National Interest. For now, the United States responds with freedom-of-navigation operations and its vessels sailing near disputed reefs and islets built up by China. Kazianis urges the United State and its partners throughout the region to document acts of coercion and environmental destruction, immediately releasing videos worldwide via social media. “Shamefare itself though is not a strategy,” he concludes, adding that must be combined with a revitalized combined joint warfare operational powers of the U.S. Navy and Air Force with Washington making Asia its priority foreign policy focus.
WASHINGTON—After President Barack Obama’s visits to Vietnam and Japan, the wider Asia–Pacific region has to wonder what the future holds as a dangerous geostrategic rivalry develops between the People’s Republic of China and the United States. And considering the stakes, such worries are completely justified.
The rise of China—and its campaign to “salami slice“ its way—occupying small pieces of reefs and semi-submerged features in the South China Sea in increments toward regional dominance—threatens America’s dominant position in Asia.
Beijing’s seemingly inexhaustible need to control the world’s most economically vibrant region has set in motion what The New York Times rightly called a “game of chicken“ that many fear could spark a tragic great-power war.
