South China Sea tensions hot and getting hotter

South China Sea tensions hot and getting hotter

China warns ominously of ‘unexpected incidents’ as US strives to build anti-China coalition in the waterway

ByRICHARD JAVAD HEYDARIAN, WASHINGTON

The United States and China have doubled down on their struggle for dominance of the South China Sea and broader Indo-Pacific, as recent sea confrontations and fiery rhetoric threaten to escalate into conflict.

Bolstered by its ever-expanding and rapidly modernizing Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), China has shown diminishing restraint in deterring, intercepting and seeking to exclude American naval assets from its claimed adjacent waters.

Boasting one of the world’s largest maritime fleet, with an armada of para-military forces and vessels increasingly acting as force multipliers, the PLAN recently deployed warships and warplanes to intercept America’s littoral combat ships in the South China Sea.

According to the PLAN’s Southern Theater Command spokesperson Li Huamin, China “sent ships and aircraft to conduct the whole-process monitoring and verification on the two US warships and warned them to leave.”

Intent on protecting China’s “blue national soil”, the PLAN spokesperson on November 22 “urged the US side to stop such provocative acts immediately so as to avoid unexpected incidents” in waters where “China has indisputable sovereignty.”

China’s unprecedented pushback came hot on the heels of the Pentagon’s deployment of the USS Montgomery and USS Gabrielle Giffords for so-called Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs) to the South China Sea.

According to the Pentagon, the two littoral combat ships “bolster attack strength in [the] South China Sea” as part of broader efforts to pressure China to “abide by international rules.” The US Navy said one littoral ship sailed near Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands on November 20, while the USS Wayne E Meyer guided-missile destroyer passed the Paracel Islands the following day.

China, which opposes the presence of American warships in its claimed waters, accused the US of “stir[ring] up trouble in the South China Sea under the pretext of freedom of navigation.”

China’s daring move to intercept US warships coincided with the high-profile visit of US Defense Secretary Mark Esper to the region, where he sought to rally China-containing support from key allies and partners, including Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and South Korea……more here

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