China’s Ministry of Defence, on Wednesday, 20 July 2022, fulminated against the US for taking “security risks” and disrupting the stability of the Taiwan Strait when the latter plied a guided-missile destroyer through the waterway earlier last week.
Colonel Shi Yi, a spokesperson for the People’s Liberation Army Eastern Theatre Command, said, in a statement, that China had monitored the US guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold, from the US 7th Fleet, from the sea and the sky during its sojourn on Tuesday, 19 July 2022.
This was the second US incursion into Chinese-claimed waters in around a week. Earlier, the USS Benfold entered the South China Sea off the contested Paracel Islands on 13 July 20222, in what was perceived as an incitement by the Chinese military.
The US 7th Fleet said its exercise was conducted “in accordance with international law” and “through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state” in an unstated reference to China. The US, in fact, said it would continue to operate wherever international law permits, including the South China Sea.
In January 2022, the same US destroyer, USS Benfold, had traveled close to the Paracel Islands, or Xisha Islands as they are called in China, invoking much ire from the Chinese. The Paracel islands, which have been under Chinese control for more than 46 years, are disputed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has constructed military facilities on the islands.
The US Navy routinely conducts Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs) in waters claimed by China (and in the 180km-wide Taiwan Strait, in particular) in a bid to uphold international law on the freedom of navigation, and to vindicate Taiwan, a self-governed democracy that China resolutely avers belongs to it.
China, in fact, claims 90% of the South China Sea as territory that historically belongs to it. On 12 July 2016, The Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague dismissed Beijing’s contention to much of the South China Sea. It stated that there was no evidence that China had exercised exclusive control, historically, over the key waterway.
Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, a nation’s sovereign territorial waters extend 12 nautical miles (22.2km) from the coastline. But China has arrantly snubbed international convention and continues to conduct illegitimate activities in international waters, claiming them as its own.
China has, over the past decades, displayed exceptionable conduct by continued and relentless military aerial sorties over disputed areas, its naval war ships trespassing these areas, and in its exercising fishing rights over troubled waters. It has also prevented mining and fishing activities by countries like Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam in contested waters.
In March 2022, US Indo-Pacific commander Admiral John C Aquilino voiced concern that China has fully militarised at least three of several islands it built in the disputed South China Sea, arming them with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missile systems, laser and jamming equipment and fighter jets in an increasingly aggressive move that threatens all nations operating nearby.
“Over the past 20 years we’ve witnessed the largest military build-up since World War Two by the PRC,” Aquilino told the Associated Press in an interview. “They have advanced all their capabilities, and that build-up of weaponisation is destabilising to the region.”
China has maintained that its actions are purely defensive, aimed at protecting its sovereign rights to its own territory. China has been building military bases on artificial islands in a region also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
China has been very territorial in its land and maritime disputes with its neighbours, nothing short of predatory. In fact, China has a list of maritime disputes with a host of its East Asian and South-east Asian neighbours.
With the Philippines, China disputes the Scarborough Reef and the Spratly Islands. Even as China offered to negotiate, the Philippines declared these territories as non-negotiable. With Indonesia, there is a dispute over the Natuna Islands and other parts of the South China Sea. With Malaysia, it is over the Spratly Islands. With South Korea, it is over the Socotra Rock (Ieodo or Suyan Rock) in the East China Sea. With Japan, it is over the Senkaku Islands and Ryushu Islands. With Brunei, it is over some parts of the Spratly Islands. With Singapore, it is over some parts of the South China Sea. With Vietnam, it is over the Spratly Islands and Paracel Islands. And with Taiwan, over the Macclesfield Bank, Paracel Islands, Scarborough Shoal, parts of the South China Sea and the Spratly Islands.
With India, China disputes the entire Ladakh region in India’s north. China also claims 83,743 square km of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh that borders the LAC across from the Tibet Autonomous Region. Since China annexed Tibet in 1950, it has laid stakes on Arunachal Pradesh, calling it ‘southern Tibet’ and hence, its territory. It also disputes 400 kilometres of territory with the tiny kingdom of Bhutan.
On 23 October 2021, China’s National People’s Congress approved a new border law asserting that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China are “sacred and inviolable”. The new border law which became operational from 1 January 2022, stipulates that “the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the People’s Republic of China are sacred and inviolable”. This kind of assertive (read aggressive) language is hectoring to the countries around it. And the US has been eager to contain China’s onslaught in the Indo-Pacific by forging new alliances there.
Today, the entire Indo-Pacific region has become volatile with the US countering China’s stake on it, in a bid to contain China’s aggressive bullying tactics in its neighbourhood. China feels bolstered by its mercurial rise as a military power. The Chinese PLA Navy is the largest navy in the world in terms of fleet size. And China has been investing heavily in it (much to the US’ chagrin at not being able to keep pace) to achieve its goal of becoming the apex power of the world, as also, perhaps, in preparedness to invade Taiwan, that it views as its sovereign territory.
Taiwan is relentlessly menaced by China, which has sworn to merge it with the mainland, violently if necessary. Last month (June 2022), Taiwan said that 29 Chinese warplanes invaded its air defence zone, the third-largest invasion this year.
According to Taipei, 29 Chinese aircraft, including 17 fighter jets and six bombers, flew into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ). In 2021, Taiwan logged 969 incursions into its ADIZ by Chinese jets, more than double the 380 sorties conducted in 2020. So far this year, the figure has surpassed 500.
According to a Taiwanese Ministry of Defense (MND) report, published on 5 June 2022, the Chinese military will be capable of fighting Taiwan and its allies together by 2027.
The report cited by Taipei Times stated that China has set a goal of modernising its warfare capabilities by 2027, which would also mark the 100th anniversary of its army (PLA)’s founding.
China has been increasingly and emphatically vociferous about upholding the `One China policy’ that proclaims Taiwan as part of China.
The US has said that it abides by the One-China policy and does not subscribe to independence for Taiwan, but the US is required to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself under the US Taiwan Relations Act (TRA).
The 1979 TRA states that the US will maintain the capacity to defend Taiwan but is not forthcoming on whether or not the US would actually militarily intervene if China attacked – ultimately this remains a US presidential decision. Over the past decade, the US has announced more than $20 billion in arms sales to Taiwan.
This month (July 2022), the US State Department approved selling military equipment worth USD 108 million to Taiwan. This will be the fifth such sale to Taiwan since Joe Biden became president in January 2021.
China strongly excoriates US weapons sales to Taiwan, and, considering the latest US commission, has verbally pressured the US to abrogate the deal.
“China demands that the US immediately withdraw its plan to sell weapons to Taiwan, cut off all military ties with the island; otherwise, the responsibility for the destruction of relations between Beijing and Washington, as well as peace and stability in Taiwan, will fall entirely on the United States,” Tan Kefei, Chinese Defence spokesperson, said, as quoted by Sputnik News Agency.
China has been simulating the invasion of Taiwan of late. And Chinese President Xi Jinping has bluntly affirmed that China may take Taiwan by force if necessary. This becomes more portentous with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that China has implicitly endorsed. General Mark Milley, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, in June 2022, warned that while a Chinese attack on Taiwan is not “imminent”, the US is nonetheless watching “very, very closely” for signs they are preparing to launch one.
Meanwhile, in early July 2022, a dozen of the US Air Force’s top-of-the-line F-22 stealth fighters, four F-35 stealth jets and 13 F-15 jets took part in exercises in the Sea of Japan, the Japanese Defense Ministry said in a news release on 14 July 2022.
The US fighter jets were joined by 20 Japanese F-15 and F-2 fighters, and three US reconnaissance and support aircraft.
Also, in July 2022, US and Japanese maritime patrol aircraft conducted an exercise near the Nansei Islands, the closest Japanese territory to Taiwan and near the Senkaku Islands, the uninhabited island chain also claimed by China, which refers to them as the Diaoyus.
That exercise was conducted to “strengthen the capability of Japan-US Alliance for effective deterrence,” a Japanese statement said.
Chinese and Russian warships have been increasing their presence around Japan in recent weeks. Late last month (June 2022), Tokyo said a total of eight Chinese and Russian ships were sighted in waters near Japan.
A five-ship Russian flotilla sailed near Japanese islands for a week, from Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa in the south, the Japanese Defense Ministry said in a news release.
Besides, at least two Chinese warships and a supply ship were spotted in the Izu Islands, about 500 kilometres south of Tokyo. One of those ships appeared to be the Lhasa, a Type 55 guided-missile destroyer and one of China’s most powerful surface ships.
On Friday, 22 July 2022, Japan’s defence ministry said it is alarmed at new threats from Russia and has growing worries about Taiwan (implicitly referring to China), in an annual defence report.
The just released paper also points to a year-end national security review that may seek the acquisition of longer-range strike missiles, strengthened space and cyber capabilities, and tighter controls over access to technology, as Tokyo mulls increasing defence spending following the perception of increased security threats in the region from Russia, China and North Korea.
Beijing strongly denigrated Japan’s new defence paper, with Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin stating at a daily news briefing that: “Japan’s new defence white paper makes accusations and smears China’s defence policy, market economic development and legitimate maritime activities.” China never fails to emphasise the legitimacy of its maritime activities in the name of national sovereignty, which, in deed, reek of hostility to and contempt for international law; and its belligerent postures pose a serious risk to the security of nations in its environs.
China’s display of adamant territoriality is a bid to instill fear and to decimate any recalcitrance in its vicinity. It seems to be materialising the means to this end through its burgeoning economic, military and diplomatic might. Its stake on its so-called sovereignty and dominance of the global order is a challenge to the West and the US, in particular, that seek to maintain the current global status quo. It has been efficacious in becoming indispensable to the global order by emerging as the factory of the world and through its humongous financing of lesser countries. China rhetorises amity on one hand, but is invariably pugnacious in reality.
At the recent 100-year anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) (commemorated in 2021), Xi Jinping warned countries trying to bully China stating: “The Chinese people will never allow foreign forces to bully, oppress or enslave us. Whoever nurses delusions of doing that will crack their heads and spill blood on a Great Wall of steel built from the flesh and blood of 1.4 billion Chinese.” Seldom did he reckon that it is China that is bullying the world in its current state.
What Xi Jinping actually got across was his emphasis of the combative ethic of the CPC and his adumbration of the fate of the adversarial in China’s endgame of ruling the world…
montes-musings.blog 
Good synopsis Monte . Well written and good perspective
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