China’s Unchallenged Sea Grab
The Pentagon raises alarms about Beijing’s island-buildi
The U.S. Navy often likes to boast that a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier is “4.5 acres of sovereign U.S. territory.” That figure is worth remembering when considering the scale of China’s construction of artificial islands and military bases in international waters hundreds of miles from its coast. As of June: 2,900 acres of new land, or more than three times the size of New York’s Central Park.
The figure comes from a Defense Department report published last week that details China’s island building in the South China Sea’s strategically located Spratly archipelago. No less alarming has been the pace of China’s island-building: Three months ago the U.S. put the figure at 2,000 acres.
That’s a topic that should be front-and-center when Chinese President Xi Jinpingvisits Washington next month. As the Pentagon notes, 30% of global maritime trade transits the South China Sea, including some $1.2 trillion in goods bound annually for the United States. The Sea also lies above billions of barrels in oil reserves. Building artificial islands with air strips and military bases in the Spratlys helps put China in a position to have effective control over all of it.
The Chinese point out that other countries long ago built outposts on artificial land, but the Pentagon tally shows such talk is at best misleading. In a mere 20 months, China has created 17 times more acreage than all other claimants combined in 40 years. Some 95% of the artificial land in the Spratlys is now Chinese.
The Chinese are also increasingly explicit about their plans to exercise power over the waters they claim as their own, including almost all of the 1.35 million-square-mile sea. China’s Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua declared this month that in Beijing’s view there is “no freedom of navigation for warships and airplanes.” That amounts to an implied threat against U.S. forces that operate regularly and lawfully in international waters and airspace, as they have for decades to anchor East Asian security.
The right response is to persistently challenge Chinese claims on the seas while raising the price for misbehavior. The U.S. did this two years ago in the East China Sea when the Chinese claimed an Air-Defense Identification Zone over Japan’s Senkaku Islands. Two B-52s soon flew through the ADIZ, and we haven’t heard much about it since from the Chinese.
The equivalent response in the Spratlys would be to sail U.S. Navy ships within 12 nautical miles of the artificial islands. The Administration has made a point of deploying the shallow-drafted Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) to the area and plans to station at least four of the vessels in Singapore by 2018. But so far no U.S. ship has crossed the 12-mile line, “a dangerous mistake that grants de facto recognition of China’s man-made sovereignty claims,” as Republican Senator John McCain noted this month.
Our sources say U.S. Pacific Commander Admiral Harry Harris and other military leaders agree but have been overruled by their civilian masters. That’s all the more unfortunate since the “pivot to Asia” was supposed to be the Obama Administration’s signature strategic move. Though 60% of U.S. air and naval assets are supposed to shift to the Pacific by 2020, America’s overall defense capabilities continue to shrink.
