Thayer China seeks to undermine US alliances in maritime East Asia

7/29/2019 Thayer China seeks to undermine US alliances in maritime East Asia

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sland issuesChina seek to undermine US alliances in maritime East Asia

By Carlyle A. Thayer


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ec .nt ten ions b tweenhina and Japan overthe ienkaku/Diaoyui land . in the Ea thina a and th naval randoffbetween ,hina and the Philippinesat earb irough hoal in theourh China Sea have expo edthe dark id of 0 ailed"peaceful ris ." In both di pureChina ha hown a willingness

to usc not only heavy-handedpolitical and diplomat ic pre urebut al 0 economic sanction andcoer ion.hina aun to recover islandand r ck . which ir claim wer

Cartyle A. Thayeris fme ltus Professoratth Auslrll ' nDefence forceAcademy, Ca nh era .

FlashpointARITIME EAST ASIA

taken from it in the century ofhumiliation during rh colonialera. 'luna's recovery of lost territory i, pan of a hu ger driv tobecome rh dominant power inEast AS ia .To a hieve the e g als, .hinahas become aggre sively assertivein Ea t Asia's maritime domain.China has al 0 soughr to tripup til United tat ' rd alancing ot Ir s rrulitarv for e posturehy undermining US alliance andrrat gic partn r hip .La t year hina and rh Philippine became involved in arandof over arborough hoal,China fir t deploy d China Mar itime iurveillance ( MS) ship

to prevent the Philippine fromarresting Clune e fi hermen illegally operating In ir water.'\ hen the Philippine refusedto ziv ground and raised it concerns ;n public, Bcjing respond dby di ;1L"hing nearly a hundredfi lung crat t nd additional civilian nforcernenr ship tc occupyScarborough Shoal and its surrounding waters. 1 hine even recred a barrier ro pre 'entthe Philippines rom gaining entryro the hoal. The ' added furtherpre sure on the Philippine by

suspending the import of banana nd cancelling Chinese touri tcharter flights.When the Philippines soughtuppor t from fellow membersof the As ociation of SoutheastA ian Nations (A EAN) andASEAN's dialogue partners,China's P litical ally, Cambodia,acting as ASEAN Chair, did irsbe t to s unle Philippine initiarive , Cambodia even went to thee.'tent of in erring wording intothe nal srarern orof the ASEANSummit that it. member agreednot to internationalize territorialdispure in the South China Sea.The Philippine ob]e ted andthe offending reference wasdropped. China rhen dispat hedFu Ying, its deputy foreign minister, to Manila to read the riot act.She told the Philippines foreignecretary that China objected to

efforts b the Philippines 10 internationa lize the issue by takingthe matter 10 rh . United Nation ,raising it with third partie includingallie: and holding high-profilepress onferenc s.The Philippine, as a treaty allyof rhe U ired rates, ha soughtackinu from Wa hingron for itsdi pure with China. The U. haprovided defen e a i ranee tothe Philippines 0 build up itapa ity for a minimal credibledeterrence.us nuclearattack subm rines have made symbolic POrtall to the Philippines.But in reality the US has beenequivo at about how it wouldrea t to an incident ar Scarborough Shoal on the grounds thatthe shoal was claimed by the Philippinesafter their Mutua l DefenseTreaty wa igned in 19 I.China ha announced that itwill maintain a permanent pres'nee at Scarborough Shoal. Insum, China virtuallyha anne. edthe ro ks without firing a shot.It i dear that the United Stateswill not intervene militarily andrhi has led some member of theFilipino eliteto rai c doubts aboutthe efficacy of the U alliance.hina al 0 employed heavyhanded tactics in dealing withjapa over the Senkakus. Whenthe japanese government boughtout private owners of everal ofthe rock to prevent them fromfallinginto the hands ofJapaneseultra-nan nali ts, their Chine t


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counterpart staged large- calcpublic protests.. everal of thedemonstrat ions tu rned violen tand targeted Japanese businessinreres .

The Chinese government, underdome tic pre ure, began a campaig of intimidatio n bydispatching u to ten MS and othercivilian enforcement vessels tothe S nkakus. The Chinese shipsdeliberately ente red Japanesewater and confronted JapaneseCoa t mud ve sels.China h . kept up unrelentingpr sure ince eptember last yearwhen the Senkaku issueemerged.It CMS hips regularly intrudeinto japane e terr itorial waterswhere they stay for everal hours

before d parting. hina' Stateo eanic Administration recentlyha b gun to fly propeller drivensurveillance planes into j apa n'sair id nrificarion zone. This hasprompted j apan to r mble F-15Jet fighters to prevent inrru ionsinto it. ir pace. Th j apanesmedia ha: reported that the Mini try of Df nse i consid ringauthorizing the F-l s to fi re warning hots.

The United 't a te ' is on publicrecord that its e urity treaty withJapan cov r rh Senkakus, Butit is an pe ecrer tho t the USis urging re trainr on Japan anddocs not want to be drawn into aconflict with China over groupof rock in rh East China Sea.

The tensions over the Senkak us and Scarborough Shoa lare more than bilateral d i putes.They involve hina deliberatelyattempting to un ermine USsecurity guarante to two of its treatyallies,The security situati on in maritime Ea r Asia will beexacerbatedin c ming years as China buildsup the capacity of its civilian paramilitary enforcement agencies andgives prior ity to modernizing itsouth Sea Fl et. In a foretastef whr r is to come, last yearChina onducted a joint exercise

bctwe n it. civilian enforcementagencies and its navy to dealwith likely incidents in disputedwater.

P1CTU AU I"NCU>f'llMinamikojima,Kitakoj ima and Uo tsuiislands, par t of theJapanese-con trolledSenkaku Islands in theEast China Sea, wh ichChina and Taiwanalso claim.

Two Japanese coastguardvessels challenge aChinese fishing boatonAug. 15, 2012.


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Thayer China seeks to undermine US alliances in maritime East Asia