Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Chinese Land Reclamation Pushes Boundaries


The Wall Street Journal
OPINION

Chinese Land Reclamation Pushes Boundaries

With Beijing building on reefs in the South China Sea, the U.S. needs to strengthen ties with regional partners.

LAND HO: A Chinese vessel expands structures and land on Johnson Reef last year.ENLARGE
LAND HO: A Chinese vessel expands structures and land on Johnson Reef last year. PHOTO: UNCREDITED/ASSOCIATED PRESS
By 
2 COMMENTS

Dramatic new satellite imagery demonstrating China’s efforts to reclaim land and construct facilities in the South China Sea has prompted concern among policy makers in Washington. This is as it should be—at stake is more than just a handful of isolated and obscure reefs and islands. Beijing’s bold moves are testament to its expansive claims of sovereignty far from its shores and a willingness to risk heightened tensions with its neighbors and the United States. They also signal the need for America and its Asian partners to enhance security ties.

Photos and reporting from IHS Jane’s and the Center for Strategic and International Studies show what observers in the region have complained about for months: China has expanded several features in the South China Sea in ways that enable it to better project force and defend its contested claims. It has built an artificial island and helipad on Hughes Reef, reclaimed land at Johnson South Reef, erected an antiaircraft tower on Gaven Reef and may be building an airstrip at Fiery Cross Reef. Together, the land reclamation and construction in the past year represent another attempt by Beijing to shift the regional order in a direction favoring its narrowly construed national interests.

Its neighbors should be worried. Where these expanded outposts today consist of isolated buildings and airstrips, they could tomorrow host destroyers, antiaircraft and missile batteries—or help enforce an air defense identification zone akin to the one Beijing announced for the East China Sea in late 2013. Combined with other recent moves, such as the Chinese oil rig placed last year in waters off Vietnam, or Beijing’s standoff with the Philippine navy two years ago near Scarborough Shoal, it suggests an increasing Chinese appetite to enforce its claim to nearly all of the South China Sea. 

Advertisement

Beijing counters that others, including Vietnam and Malaysia, have modified features in the area, and that in any event everything within the famous “nine-dash line” is Chinese territory. It ignores explicit statements by the U.S. and others that the line is inconsistent with international law, or that its actions violate an agreement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to avoid destabilizing activities. In the wake of the new reports, Chinese media not only confirmed that “large-scale” land reclamation was occurring, but added that work had also begun on Cuarteron Reef, a disputed feature claimed by the Philippines, and that Chinese troops had conducted drills there.

China’s activities on remote islands are part of a larger surge in assertiveness. Its continued, significant military buildup includes investments in antiaccess, area-denial capabilities that aim to disrupt America’s ability to project power in the Pacific. Beijing’s military strides and diplomatic coercion have combined to prompt nearly every country in the region to increase its defense investments and deepen security ties with its neighbors and the U.S. And China’s recent conduct has undermined a charm offensive that includes pledges of large-scale Chinese investment in regional infrastructure.

At issue is the kind of world China—and by extension everyone else—wishes to see emerge. The open, rules-based international order and the Asian regional order underpinned by U.S. power have proved deeply beneficial for many countries—China not least. A move to a might-makes-right doctrine augurs a deeply unattractive future. This is a world of heightened tensions, increased risks to economic growth and ever-proliferating flashpoints. 

The U.S. and its growing number of willing Asian partners should use Beijing’s recent action in the South China Sea to further galvanize their security cooperation—not as a method of containing China but rather of balancing its assertiveness. The best bet for avoiding coercion and conflict in a region where China continues to rise is a U.S. that is present, strong and working with other powers.

This requires Washington to get its own defense house in order. At a moment when China’s submarine fleet for the first time outnumbers America’s, the specter of sequestration hangs over the Pentagon’s budget. It means working more meaningfully with countries like Vietnam and the Philippines and encouraging them to work with Japan and others. And it should include encouraging India’s continued rise as a major Indo-Pacific power that can eventually help balance Chinese weight.

Satellite pictures are, it seems, worth a thousand words. In an era of focus on Russia and the Middle East they have garnered a moment’s attention in the corridors of power. They should not only remind U.S. leaders of China’s ambitions, but also push the U.S. to deepen its ties with a region on the move.

Mr. Fontaine is president of the Center for a New American Security in Washington, D.C.

There are 2 comments.
NewestOldestReader Recommended
Steven Rogers

Where are the international environmentalists?  They should be tying themselves to the reefs to protect them!  


Carl Falcone

Don't worry, Obama is all over this........like hes all over Iran........Isis........Venezuela........Ukraine..........Iraq.......Yemen....... . .       . 


POPULAR ON WSJ

EDITORS’ PICKS

SECTIONS

 
 

Log In Subscribe

©2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
 

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)