China Says Military Will "Stand Up And Use Force" If US Sends Warships To Disputed Islands

Earlier this week, U.S. authorities pointed out that they are ready to go through with a strategy to sail warships around China’s man-made islands in the Spratlys.

“It’s just a matter of time when it happens,” one government source shared with media .

Over the course of the previous 6 months, we have observed China’s land reclamation initiatives go from oddity, to spectacle, to supposed “provocation”, to excuse for war, as Washington is motivated to come to the help of its allies in the South Pacific who cried foul after it started to be obvious that this was no “normal” dredging attempt.

In other words, China has developed some 3,000 acres of new sovereign property and the U.S. boasts Beijing is successfully attempting to redraw maritime boundaries on the way to setting up completely new military outposts. For its portion, China denies the accusations and has answered with a odd mix of veiled provocations (adjusting the wording of its official maritime approach), not-so-veiled threats (informing a U.S. spy plane with a CNN team on board to “go now”), and amusing hype (a series of photographs from Fiery Cross revealing women, puppies, and gardens).

In spite of attempts to de-escalate the topic when Xi been to the U.S. this month, Beijing appears to be prepared to draw a line in the sand when it comes to permitting the U.S. to sail warships close to the islands. Here is AFP with even more:

Chinese press criticized the U.S. Thursday for “ceaseless provocations” in the South China Sea, with Washington likely to shortly distribute warships in close proximity to the artificial islands, Beijing has constructed in disputed waters.

Subsequent to a conference of American and Australian officials Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter informed Beijing that Washington will proceed to send its military where international law permits, as well as the South China Sea.

The responses were supported by Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who stated the 2 countries are “on the same page.”

An article in The Global Times, which happens to be close to China’s ruling Communist party, took offense to Washington’s “ceaseless provocations and coercion”.

“China must not accept uncontrolled U.S. violations of China’s surrounding waters and the skies over those expanding islands,” it stated, including that its military should “be ready to launch countermeasures according to Washington’s level of provocation,” it included.

The warship or ships would pass inside of the 12-mile territorial limit China claims around the structures to show that U.S. commanders do not have an understanding of it.

Such a shift, the Global Times indicated, could be a “breach of China’s bottom line”.

“If the US encroaches on China’s core interests, the Chinese military will stand up and use force to stop it,” the paper cautioned.

There you have it. It does not get much simpler than that.

Certainly, there is little question that China will use these islands for some military objective. Regardless if that objective will be very restricted (as Beijing has indicated without clearly recognizing the militarization of the reefs) continues to be observed.

One particular issue that one may relatively request here nevertheless, is regardless if the U.S. truly wants to sail by the islands just to see if can do so without getting shot at. It is not, in fact, as though China is on the brink of using the Spratlys as a staging ground for an attack of the entire South Pacific so one marvels whether it might not be better to hold out until there is some genuine objective for a pass-by. That way, Beijing cannot point to a planned “provocation.”

In any case, we assume we will see in the next week or so who blinks first.

A little history on the latest developments with associated images…

Regardless of the truth that China claimed to have largely completed its dredging endeavours in the Spratlys in June, Bonnie Glaser, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, tells a different tale. Here is what Glaser has to mention about a sequence of new photographs shown below and accessible at the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative:

China is still dredging in the South China Sea. Satellite ımages of Subi Reef obtained in early September exhibits dredgers pumping sediment onto places surrounded by fairly recently built sea walls and widening the channel for ships to enter the waters enclosed by the reef. On Mischief Reef, a dredger is also at work broadening the channel to allow easier access for ships, probably for future use as a naval base.

This action comes in the wake of statements by China that its land reclamation has concluded in the Spratly Island chain. On August 5, in the course of the ASEAN Regional Forum in Kuala Lumpur, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi informed media, “China has already stopped. You look, who is building? Take a plane and look for yourself.” He did not promise that China would avoid construction and militarization on the newly-created islands, nonetheless.

Wang Yi reiterated that China’s building on the islands is primarily “to improve the working and living conditions of personnel there” and for “public good purposes.” To date, nonetheless, China’s actions seems concentrated on construction for military functions. Fairly recently built buildings on Fiery Cross Reef consist of a finished and newly painted 3,000-meter runway, helipads, a radar dome, a surveillance tower, and probable satellite communication facilities.

Obviously Chinese plans for building extended airstrips on Subi and Mischief boost questions about whether China will offer challenges to freedom of navigation in the air and sea surrounding those land features in the future.

The determination of dredging along with construction and militarization on China’s artificial islands underscore Beijing’s unwillingness to work out self-restraint and look for diplomatic routes to decrease stress with its neighbors, the United States, and other nations with an desire in the preservation of peace and stability in the South China Sea. U.S. calls for all claimants in the South China Sea to stop land reclamation, construction, and militarization have been turned down by China, which views the status quo as antagonistic to its pursuits.

On the eve of President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States, Beijing appears to be sending a message to President Barack Obama that China is motivated to enhance its interests in the South China Seawhether or not doing so effects in increased concerns with the United States,and more from Gregory Poling, a fellow with the Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies and the Pacific Partners Initiative at CSIS and AMTI director.

Previously this year, the improvement of an airfield on Fiery Cross Reef offered considerably more southerly runway able of handling a lot of if not all Chinese military aircraft. And in June, satellite images suggested that China was planning to build another runway at Subi Reef. New photographs taken on September 3 reveals grading work at Subi, supplying, additional ,data, that runway building there is intended. On the other hand operates at the Fiery Cross airfield is well enhanced, with China presently making use of paint.

Satellite pictures obtained on September 8 contain an unforeseen production, showing that China might be planning to create an additional airstrip at Mischief Reef. These photographs show that a wall has been constructed alongside the northwest side of the reef, generating a approximately 3,000-meter rectangular location.

And the new visuals:

I will close with the quote from Robert Kaplan, a senior guy at the Center for a New American Security in Washington who talked to Bloomberg:

“The Chinese have a classic Sun Tzu philosophy of incremental steps. Because it is small steps, the Americans and their allies will not be able to respond in a strong fashion because they will seem to be over reacting. That is what makes China’s approach so infuriating.”

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