While reports indicate that movement is being made in this direction, the current administration thus far appears willing to risk the ability of U.S. ships and aircraft to freely navigate vast portions of the Pacific Ocean by failing to conduct lawful ‘freedom of navigation’ operations (FONOPs) in response to blatantly illegal Chinese actions regarding rocks, shoals, and reefs in the South China Sea (SCS). In so doing, policymakers are willfully running U.S. presence in this vital region into metaphorical rocks and shoals. The danger to U.S. national security cannot be overstated, and these operations must be conducted as soon as possible.
As reflected in the March 2015 U.S. Department of Defense Freedom of Navigation fact sheet, “Since the founding of the nation, the United States has asserted a vital interest in preserving freedom of the seas and necessarily called on its military forces to preserve that interest.” Similarly, the U.S. Department of State website on Maritime Security and Navigation makes it clear that the United States will not “acquiesce in the unilateral acts of other states designed to restrict the rights and freedoms of the international community in navigation and overflight and other related high seas uses.”
Yet, despite these unambiguous assertions, the current administration appears content to allow illegal Chinese actions in the SCS that clearly infringe upon freedom of navigation to go unchallenged out of a perceived fear of escalation, miscalculation, or both. While verbal protests by government officials place China on notice that the U.S. objects to their unlawful claims, they are insufficient to alter Chinese behavior, bolster the confidence of regional partners, or ensure U.S. freedom of navigation rights. It is critical that the U.S. Navy conduct FONOPs now to make it crystal clear to China and nations around the world that the U.S. will not stand for any unlawful infringement on its navigational rights.
China’s Ultimate Objective
Seemingly acknowledging that several other nations also claim sovereignty over islands, rocks, and low tide elevations in the SCS, China signed the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of the Parties in the South China Sea. Pursuant to that declaration China agreed to: 1) reaffirm its respect for and commitment to the freedom of navigation in and overflight above the SCS, 2) resolve territorial and jurisdictional disputes by peaceful means, without resorting to the threat or use of force, through friendly consultations and negotiations by sovereign states directly concerned, and 3) to exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability including, among others, refraining from the action of inhabiting presently uninhabited islands, reefs, shoals, cays, and other features. Since 2009 China has breached each one of these provisions.
In May 2009, the PRC informed the United Nations that it had “indisputable sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea,” a position that it has consistently held since 1948. In July 2010, a Chinese Ministry of Defense spokesman asserted that China possessed “sufficient historical and legal backing” for such a claim and added that China would “in accordance with the demands of international law, respect the freedom of the passage of ships or aircraft from relevant countries.”
However, in November 2013 China surprised the world when it announced the establishment of an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the East China Sea (ECS) that not only overlapped with the South Korean and Japanese ADIZs and the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands but also required all aircraft that intended to enter the ADIZ to file a flight plan and adhere to the directions of Chinese officials. In response, the U.S. flew two B-52 bombers through the ADIZ to send a clear message that Chinese ADIZ requirements violated customary international law and thus unduly infringed on U.S. freedom of navigation.
Shortly thereafter, in December 2013 and once again without notice, China began a massive land reclamation project in seven locations in the SCS. Once discovered, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman stated in late 2014 that the construction was “mainly for the purpose of improving the working and living conditions for people stationed on the islands” and so that the PRC could “better fulfill its international obligations and responsibilities in search and rescue.” However, by April 2015, after satellite imagery showed an airstrip being built on one of the artificial islands, the same spokeswoman acknowledged for the first time that China’s activities were also intended to serve “necessary military requirements.”
While the United States and some ASEAN nations protested China’s unilateral actions as unlawful and destabilizing, it wasn’t until May 2015 that U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter asked for options that included flying naval surveillance aircraft and steaming naval vessels in the vicinity of these man-made islands.
On May 20, the world was able to view a CNN television crew aboard a U.S. Navy P-8 aircraft, which flew a mission in international airspace (outside 12 nautical miles) in the vicinity of China’s man-made islands. During the flight, a Chinese military official repeatedly warned the P-8 that it was in a Chinese “military alert zone” and demanded that the aircraft depart the area. Shortly thereafter, Secretary Carter proclaimed that the U.S. “would fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows” and noted that “turning an underwater rock into an airfield simply does not afford the rights of sovereignty or permit restrictions on international air or maritime transit.” In response, on August 11, Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua brazenly asserted that “freedom of navigation does not mean to allow other countries to intrude into the airspace of the sea which is sovereign… no freedom of navigation for warships and airplanes.”
It now appears that China intends to build airstrips on three of the seven man-made islands it has created. Earlier this year, Admiral Samuel Locklear, former Commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, told the U.S. Senate that if Chinese activity continued it would give the PRC “de facto control” of the maritime territory they claim. In more recent testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Adm. Harry Harris, the current Commander of U.S. Pacific Command, observed that in addition to airstrips China was also building deep-water port facilities that could house major combatant ships, and postulated that there could be a network of missile sites, runways, fighter planes and surveillance sites such that “it creates a mechanism by which China would have de facto control over the South China Sea in any scenario short of war.”
Other experts have noted that the man-made islands allow China to greatly extend the range of not only its fighter aircraft but also its surveillance and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft, thus enhancing its ability to conduct ASW inside the so called ‘first island chain.’ Finally, one observer concluded that China’s recent moves in the SCS, coupled with their 2013 surprise enactment of an ADIZ of the ECS, and their frequent intercepts and harassment of U.S. Navy ships and aircraft in the region, should be seen as a series of actions “that are rooted in an effort to push U.S. and allied forces away from Chinese ‘near seas’ and areas of ‘core interest’ while at the same time attempting to negate operational concepts like…Air Sea Battle and associated weapons platforms that could challenge China’s growing anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) capabilities.”
While China has asserted sovereignty over the SCS since 1948, only recently has it possessed both the technological and military capability to expand control over the region. It has boldly demonstrated a willingness to create facts on the ground, in obvious contravention to the 2002 Conduct of the Parties in the South China Sea, and thus far no nation appears willing to directly challenge China’s illegal actions. Ironically, China frequently justifies its actions as legal under international law, to include the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), despite the fact that a near-consensus of knowledgeable observers from around the globe concur that China’s actions in the ECS and SCS are in flagrant violation of international law.
Moving forward, it would not be surprising if China were to announce an ADIZ over the entire SCS while at the same time increasing its verbal warnings to aviators and mariners, aircraft intercepts, and harassment of other nation’s aircraft, warships, and fishing vessels in both the ECS and SCS. If the United States, the only nation that uses military forces to assert freedom of navigation, doesn’t step up and act now, it may well be construed by the Chinese and others that Washington is in effect ceding its ability to freely navigate in international waters and airspace in the SCS as well as acquiescing to China’s assertion of sovereignty over their man-made islands.
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Read more at The Diplomat
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