For the past two decades, the South China Sea has been
recognized as a geopolitical flashpoint that has the potential to destabilize
regional security in a vital part of the world.
On February 16, China escalated tensions by deploying two batteries of
eight surface-to-air (SAM) missiles on Woody Island, which is part of the
highly contest Paracel Island Chain in the South China Sea. China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea
is concerning, but should the U.S. really be all that surprised?
The latest provocation in the South China Sea is one of many
that the White House views as an emerging Chinese pattern to assert its
dominance in a region where about 30% of the world's trade passes. The Chinese navy has expanded its fleet and
simultaneously its claim on territory throughout the region. According to Realpolitik, China will continue
to maximize its power gap “so that no powerful state in Asia has the
wherewithal to threaten it.”[1] Naturally, this will be problematic for the
United States, which has dominated the Pacific since Douglas MacArthur famously
proclaimed, “I’ll be back.”
The rise of China has inevitably been a cause of fretfulness
in Washington. More specifically,
China’s provocative efforts to undermine U.S. hegemony in the Pacific is viewed
as a “Chinese philosophical challenge to the current notion that America is the
nation that best deserves to run the business of the the Pacific Ocean, as it
has done for the century past.”[2] Indeed, China is seemingly on a quest for
power in the Pacific. Thus, as China
continues to rise, we should expect Beijing to try to push the United States
out of the region. The U.S. should not
acquiesce.
To combat China’s unilateral attempts to control the South
China Sea, the United States has commenced a “freedom of navigation operation”
that would demonstrate to China that the U.S. has the right to go anywhere
International Law allows it. On
February 3, the U.S. challenged China by sailing the guided missile destroyer
USS Curtis Wilbur near the disputed islands.[3] The SAM deployment on Woody Island two weeks
later was seemingly a response to this U.S. action.
That China should be positing its own Monroe Doctrine for
the Asian-Pacific region should come as no surprise to the United States. Yet, Chinese assertiveness threatens to
engulf the region in a conflict that would threaten the world economy. The United States and its southeast Asian
allies should continue to assert its freedom to operate within this global hub
of trade without regard to Chinese ambitions.
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