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China's devious move under cover of virus
As outbreaks debilitate the US navy, there are fears China may be using the coronavirus pandemic as cover for asserting control over the South China Sea.
A Vietnamese fishing boat has been rammed and sunk. Military aircraft have landed at its artificial-island fortresses. And large-scale naval exercises has let everyone know China's navy is still pushing the boundaries, hard.
Meanwhile, the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier strike group has retreated from the contested waterway in an unscheduled return to Guam – with hundreds of cases of COVID-19 on board.
China's Peoples Liberation Army knows this presents an opportunity.
"The outbreak of COVID-19 has significantly lowered the US Navy's warship deployment capability in the Asia-Pacific region," an article on its official website declares.
The website insists not a single one of its soldiers, sailors or pilots had contracted COVID-19. Instead, the crisis had served to strengthen the combat readiness and resolve of the Chinese military.
That has international affairs analysts worried that even a short-term withdrawal of US and international from the East and South China Seas could give Beijing the opportunity it has been waiting for.
"I think China is exploiting the US Navy's coronavirus challenges to improve its position in the South China Sea by giving the appearance it can and will operate there at will while the US is hamstrung," former Pacific Command Joint Intelligence Centre director Carl Schuster told CNN.
Previously:
(2020-01-09) China Initiates Conflict with Indonesia in the South China Sea
(2019-12-21) Malaysian Top Envoy: China's 'Nine-Dash Line' Claim 'Ridiculous'
(2019-11-22) US Warships Sail in Disputed South China Sea Amid Tensions
(2019-05-14) China Builds New Type 002 Mega Carrier as the Age of Sea Power Wanes
(2018-05-13) China Begins Sea Trials for its First Domestically Developed Aircraft Carrier
(2017-12-24) World's Largest Amphibious Plane in Production Takes Flight in China
(2017-05-25) US Warship Challenges China's Claims in South China Sea
(2017-04-26) China Launches Aircraft Carrier
(2017-03-14) Japan to Send its Biggest Warship to the South China Sea
(2017-01-13) Chinese State Media Boasts About its New Electronic Reconnaissance Ship
(2016-07-14) China's South China Sea Claims Rejected By "Binding" but Unenforceable Tribunal Ruling
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2020, @12:05AM (11 children)
I don't see how it is our place to tell China not to assert themselves when we are spending more time trying to embarrass Venezuela than we are trying to interdict cocaine shipments.
We have no place or role in Venezuela or off its shores.
We have no place or role in China or off its shores.
Say what you want about China, I don't see them allowing their kleptocrats or oligarchs to smuggle tons of cocaine or heroin into China.
(Score: 3, Informative) by PinkyGigglebrain on Monday April 13 2020, @12:54AM (3 children)
Except for the fact that the USA is legally obligated to aid in the defense of Japan under the terms of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan [wikipedia.org]
So as much as people don't like it the USA does have a reason to be off China's shores.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 3, Touché) by PartTimeZombie on Monday April 13 2020, @01:06AM (2 children)
The South China Sea is a long way from Japan.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday April 13 2020, @04:36AM (1 child)
A long way - tactically, or strategically? Or, do you just mean that it's further than you can walk in a day? Further than you can ride horseback in a day? Further than you can drive in a day? It's not further than you can travel by train, or by plane, or by spaceship in a day.
And, the title of this sub-thread is ridiculous. If the China sea is China's by reason of the waves crashing on China's shores, then likewise, all of the Atlantic and Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico belong to the US. How do you think that claim would play out on the world stage?
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday April 13 2020, @08:22PM
Strategically the South China Sea is everyone's business, due to the huge amount of international trade that passes through it.
I think the point has been made that there is no way China is making war with anyone in that part of the world, due to what they'd lose. Which is everything.
Also, America can't claim the Pacific, because it already belongs to Fiji.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday April 13 2020, @01:04AM (2 children)
I was wondering the same thing.
China has too much to lose to ever block any of these sea lanes, and if they're not going to prevent traffic in the area, what is it that the US is worried about?
The article says "asserting control over the South China Sea" but then fails to explain how that is any of the US' business.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2020, @05:20AM
Basically they want to control both fishing and mineral and oil extraction from the area.
The South China Sea is relatively shallow and expected to be an oil rich area. Undersea mining is also developing rapidly and the SCA is a prime area. Every new island they build and declare to be part of China greatly expands their territorial waters.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2020, @05:34AM
(Score: 3, Insightful) by khallow on Monday April 13 2020, @01:32AM
Except of course when US interests are at stake, such as protecting a US ally, Taiwan, navigating most of the South China Sea, which is off a lot of peoples' shores, or acting to reduce the possibility for conflicts that could draw the US into war.
And yet the smuggling happens anyway.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday April 13 2020, @02:42AM
The other thing is that the various nations surrounding the South China Sea have been squabbling over that area for decades. This is business as usual. If China stopped doing anything there you'd still get news about it, only now it'd be "Covid19 is so bad that China has even stopped messing around in the South China Sea".
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Monday April 13 2020, @10:27PM (1 child)
"It's their sea"
No, it is not "their sea". It happens to be called by the same name as our word for their country. Parts of it are pretty definitely "their sea". As to the rest, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, Brunei etc. strenuously disagree and in some cases have a lot of history and precedent on their side.
China wants to make it "their sea" but people and nations want many things that aren't necessarily reasonable.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @09:47AM
You mean soon to be called "provinces of China" ?? Duterte already sold out Philippines to China by basically ending the defence treaty with US.
https://www.msn.com/en-ph/news/worldtrendtop/duterte-ph-must-be-able-to-defend-itself/ar-BB10tJ9P [msn.com]