China and US military ties rise above tensions, need to stay there

[Disir]

When China's Central Military Commission Vice-Chairman Fan Changlong led a high-level delegation to the United States last week, the news media mostly focused their attention on the thorny issues of the South China Sea and cyber security.

These issues are nothing new, but they have escalated recently as the US called on China to halt its land reclamation on the Nansha Islands in the South China Sea.

US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter reiterated that call to China and other island claimants in a press release issued right after his nearly four-hour meeting with Fan at the Pentagon on Thursday.

The Chinese side has tried their best to explain the situation and voice their stance. The construction in the Nansha Islands - or Spratly Islands, as other nations call them - is totally on China's sovereign territory. It is mainly aimed at improving the living and working conditions there. Some military facilities are for the sake of defending China's sovereignty.

Fan has reassured that freedom of navigation will not be threatened, not just to the US but other nations as well. The top-ranking Chinese general has asked the US side to reduce its military activities in the South China Sea, both in the air and on the water.

For years China has protested the US close-in military surveillance, something that the US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Danny Russel said in late May the US would keep doing.

Neither side has said that they have gotten any closer on the issue, but it seems clear that they had a deep exchange of views during Fan's visit.
China and US military ties rise above tensions need to stay there Chen Weihua chinadaily.com.cn

Sovereignty. This seems to be really difficult.

 

[Dot Com]

They are our banker. Not surprising given capitalism's "race to the bottom" in wage labor practice.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - dat's tellin' dem Chinamens...

US Won't Back Down on South China Sea, Navy's Top Officer Says
Jul 20, 2016 | Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson used a visit to the port city of Qingdao on Wednesday to push back against Chinese bluster and deliver a message that the U.S. will continue to oppose China's artificial islands and military buildup in the region.

"This will not change," said Richardson, who visited the Chinese North Sea Fleet headquarters in Qingdao and met with fleet commander Vice Adm. Yuan Yubai, the Navy said. "The U.S. Navy will continue to conduct routine and lawful operations around the world, including in the South China Sea, in order to protect the rights, freedoms and lawful uses of sea and airspace guaranteed to all," he said.

Richardson appealed to the Chinese to "take advantage of our common culture as sailors" to avoid confrontation, while calling on the government to stop the intimidation of regional allies and settle territorial disputes through negotiation. "I am supportive of a continued and deepening navy-to-navy relationship, but I will be continuously reassessing my support conditioned on continued safe and professional interactions at sea. In this area, we must judge each other by our deeds and actions, not just by our words," Richardson said. The five-day trip was Richardson's first to China, and it got off to a rocky start in Beijing on Monday where he was lectured by Adm. Wu Shengli, commander of the People's Liberation Army Navy, on China's rejection of an international tribunal's ruling last week against China's claims in the South China Sea.

U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson, left, and Commander of the Chinese navy, Adm. Wu Shengli shake hands at the Chinese Navy Headquarters in Beijing​

"The Chinese navy is prepared to react to any infringement of rights or aggression," Wu said, according to official Chinese media, and "efforts to force us to succumb to pressure will only be counterproductive. We will never stop our construction on the Nansha Islands," where the Philippines and other nations also claim rights, Wu said, referring to the Spratly islands. "The Nansha Islands are China's inherent territory, and our necessary construction on the islands is reasonable, justified and lawful," he said. "Any attempt to force China to give in through flexing military muscles will only have the opposite effect."

Last week, an arbitration tribunal in The Hague, which lacked any enforcement power, rejected China's claims to economic rights across large swathes of the South China Sea, ruling in favor of the Philippines. In a background briefing last week, a senior State Department official said that the U.S. expected China's immediate reaction to the ruling would be to bluster and portray itself as the victim of a U.S. power play. But the official also expressed the hope that China would ultimately agree to joint development in the South China Sea after a cooling off period.

US Won't Back Down on South China Sea, Navy's Top Officer Says | Military.com

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Has South China Sea ruling set scene for next global conflict?
Wed July 13, 2016 - Could an old map bring Asia to the brink of war?
An international tribunal ruled Tuesday that China's nine-dash line -- drawn on a map dating from the 1940s that claims large stretches of the South China Sea -- has no legal basis.

It was an eviscerating verdict for Beijing, which has long claimed it has unique, historical rights to the disputed waters which are rich in resources and a busy thoroughfare for international shipping. "It will certainly intensify conflict and even confrontation," said Cui Tankui, China's ambassador to the United States, in a speech in Washington. Analysts say the ruling, which went overwhelmingly in favor of the Philippines, narrows China's wiggle room for negotiation in the dispute. "It will further escalate nationalist sentiment in a big nation like China," said Wang Jiangyu, law professor with the National University of Singapore. "In fact, it has immediately forced many of China's moderates to become hawks."

Risk of miscalculation

Ashley Townshend, research fellow at the U.S. Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, said that if the ruling had been a less emphatic victory for the U.S.-allied Philippines, then it may have proved a "bit of a firebreak" for regional tensions, opening up space for negotiation over the issue. Instead, the international tribunal delivered a resounding verdict against Beijing, and in response, China might be less concerned with managing its reputation in the eyes of the world, and less troubled about being seen as an international lawbreaker.

Anton Alifandi, principal Asia analyst for IHS, said the big worry was that there would be an interstate war involving the major powers -- the U.S., China and the countries of southeast Asia. But, he said, the stakes were so high that it was highly unlikely in the medium term that China would deliberately escalate tensions to a point where the U.S. would retaliate -- as to do so would lead to a defeat for China, and a loss of legitimacy.
However, he said, "there is always a risk of miscalculation, that is the danger." "If one side plays brinkmanship and thinks the other side will back down and you miscalculate, things can get out of hand quite quickly."

'First act'

Townshend said that it was in no-one's interest that the region -- which has $5 trillion worth of trade pass through its waters annually -- become the setting of a next global conflict between China and United States.
"But it would be a mistake to argue that the risks are low. The risks are high," he said. He said that China would be "acutely aware of the risks of unintended escalation," but it would now be under domestic pressure to register its defiance of the verdict and demonstrate that it had no intention of changing its position. Shen Dingli, professor and associate dean at the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, said China's behavior in the South China Sea, where it's turned sandbars into islands equipped with military airstrips, was unlikely to change.

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[Unkotare]

They are our banker. ...

Wrong

 

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They are our banker. ...

Wrong

one word response w/o a source? You ARE improving albeit at a snails pace

 

[waltky]

China gettin' uppity in East China Sea...

China Holds Live-fire Navy Drills in East China Sea
Aug 02, 2016 — China's navy has fired dozens of missiles and torpedoes during exercises in the East China Sea that come amid heightened maritime tensions in the region, underscoring Beijing's determination to back up its sovereignty claims with force if needed.

The live-fire drills that began Monday follow China's strident rejection of an international arbitration panel's ruling last month that invalidated Beijing's claims to a vast swath of the South China Sea. That led to days of angry statements from Beijing, followed by live-firing naval exercises in the South China Sea and the launch of regular aerial patrols in the area.

A missile is launched from a guided-missile destroyer during a live ammunition drill in the East China Sea.​

On Tuesday, the Defense Ministry said the East China Sea exercises were aimed at improving the "intensity, precision, stability and speed" of its military. "An information technology-based war at sea is sudden, cruel and short, which requires fast transition to combat status, quick preparation and high assault efficiency," the ministry said. The drills include ships, submarines, aircraft and coast guard forces, illustrating China's growing emphasis on integrated training under realistic conditions.

China's navy has been closing the gap with its U.S. rival in both ship numbers and technology, including the deployment of advanced anti-ship missiles, nuclear submarines and the country's first aircraft carrier. While global attention has been drawn to the South China Sea, where five governments exercise territorial claims overlapping with China's, Beijing also operates extensively in the East China Sea, where it claims a string of uninhabited islands controlled by Japan.

China Holds Live-fire Navy Drills in East China Sea | Military.com

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B-1 Bombers to Patrol Skies from Guam
Jul 31, 2016 | Pacific Air Forces said it is sending speedy and low-flying B-1B bombers to Guam for the first time in 10 years. The move comes with China vowing to up its bomber and fighter flights in the contested South China Sea and the United States adding to its own aircraft firepower in the unstable region.

The B-1s, which have a low-radar cross section and can fly at more than 900 mph, "will provide a significant rapid global strike capability that enables our readiness and commitment to deterrence, offers assurance to our allies and strengthens regional security and stability," the Hawaii-based command said. The undisclosed number of B-1s will deploy to Andersen Air Force Base on Aug. 6 to replace B-52 bombers from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota that have been on Guam as part of U.S. Pacific Command's continuous bomber presence mission.

A B-1 Bomber sits on the flightline at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota.​

The B-1 bombers will be accompanied by about 300 airmen from Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. B-1 units bring "a unique perspective and years of repeated combat and operational experience" from the Middle East to the Pacific, the Air Force said. While it's not the first time the B-1 has been based in the Pacific, it's been 10 years since the last rotation. B-52 bombers out of Guam have played a key role maintaining flying rights in international airspace in a rebuke of China's far-reaching sovereignty claims, which are challenged by some neighboring countries. The Permanent Court of Arbitration recently rejected outright China's territorial claims over much of the South China Sea in a case brought by the Philippines -- a ruling China said it would ignore.

Two of the B-52 long-range bombers were sent into airspace over the East China Sea in late 2013 in defiance of China's declaration of an "air defense identification zone" requiring other nations to get its approval to fly in what the United States considers international airspace. B-52s also have flown over the South China Sea. Five A-10 Thunderbolt II "Warthog" tank-buster aircraft and four EA-18 Growler electronic attack aircraft were deployed to the Philippines in recent months, and the United States is in talks to base long-range bombers in Australia.

B-1 Bombers to Patrol Skies from Guam | Military.com