Obama team, military at odds over South China Sea
Washington maintains the Navy has the right to sail or fly by the series of artificial islands that China is outfitting with military equipment.
Protesters brandish placards at a rally in front of the Chinese Consulate in Manila, Phillippines. | Getty
Some U.S. naval commanders are at odds with the Obama administration over whether to sail Navy ships right into a disputed area in the South China Sea — a debate that pits some military leaders who want to exercise their freedom of navigation against administration officials and diplomats trying to manage a delicate phase in U.S.-China relations.
The Pentagon has repeatedly maintained it reserves the right to sail or fly by a series of artificial islands that China is outfitting with military equipment. The Navy won’t say what it has or hasn’t done, but military officials and congressional hawks want the U.S. to make a major demonstration by sending warships within 12 miles of the artificial islands and make clear to China that the U.S. rejects its territorial claims.
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By not doing so, they charge, Washington is tacitly accepting China’s destabilizing moves, which are seen by U.S. allies in the region such as Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam as highly threatening.
“We continue to restrict our Navy from operating within a 12 nautical mile zone of China’s reclaimed islands, a dangerous mistake that grants de facto recognition of China’s man-made sovereignty claims,” Sen. John McCain, the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, told POLITICO.
Sources in the military and within the administration acknowledge the difference of opinion privately, but would not go on the record to discuss the differences between Navy leaders and the administration. The internal debate within the U.S. government comes as leaders of Pacific nations, including Secretary of State John Kerry and his his Chinese counterpart, are set to convene for a regional security conference next week in Malaysia and ahead of the state visit to the United States in September of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The dispute is more than just a naval territorial dispute — there are global economic implications if China claims ownership of this part of the sea, which sees trillions in goods shipped between Asia and the rest of the globe.
It centers on a group of man-made islands in the South China Sea that China has created by dumping thousands of tons of sand on coral reefs and shoals. Over the last 18 months, Chinese engineers have created about 3,000 acres of new land, the Pentagon says, where they have deployed artillery, built aircraft runways and buildings and positioned radars and other equipment. This week, the chief of the Philippine military, General Hernando Iriberri, told journalists in Manila it was investigating reports China had reclaimed three more reefs in the South China Sea.
China claims it has exclusive control over waters hundreds of miles off its coast, and U.S. officials say Beijing believes the man-made islands strengthen its claim to the disputed Spratly Islands chain, which China and several Southeast Asian countries claim as their own.
“China is changing the facts on the ground, literally, by essentially building man-made islands on top of coral reefs rocks and shoals,” Adm. Harry Harris, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, said last week at the Aspen Security Forum. “I believe that China’s actions to enforce its claims within the South China Sea could have far-reaching consequences for our own security and economy, by disrupting the international rules and norms that have supported the global community for decades,” Harris warned.
China shot back on Thursday, with a Ministry of Defense spokesman saying it is the United States that is “militarizing” the South China Sea.
“China is extremely concerned at the United States’ pushing of the militarization of the South China Sea region,” the spokesman said, according to Reuters. “Recently they have further increased military alliances and their military presence, frequently holding joint drills.”
The U.S. Navy has so far been deliberately ambiguous about where it has operated in the South China Sea, not responding to questions about where exactly it has operated. When the warship USS Fort Worth encountered a Chinese vessel near the contested Spratly Islands in May, for example, officials declined to say exactly where.
Yet it is Harris, the top U.S. military commander in the region, who in private has been one of the biggest proponents of sailing U.S. warships within 12 miles of the islands, according to a government official directly familiar with his thinking. Harris’ staff did not respond to a request for an interview, but a senior Pentagon official who asked not to be named confirmed the differing viewpoints and Harris’ — and the wider Pacific Command’s — position.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/barack-obama-administration-navy-pentagon-odds-south-china-sea-120865.html#ixzz3hWL6z7no
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