Screenshot from video of “Unprofessional Intercept of U.S. aircraft over South China Sea” by a People’s Republic of China J-11 pilot, Oct. 24, 2023. U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Public Affairs
China’s South China Sea imperialism requires stronger international action
Washington Examiner November 03, 12:01 AM November 03, 12:01 AM Video Embed
As communist China escalates its campaign to turn the South China Sea into its own private swimming pool, the United States must organize stronger international action to stop it.
The scale of President Xi Jinping’s ambition is vast. The map below shows the waters China claims as its own — namely, the democracy of Taiwan and the near entirety of the South China Sea. Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, and the Philippines are all tartly informed by Beijing that their exclusive economic zones are not in fact exclusive waters but rather Chinese waters — waters in which only Chinese warships, fishing fleets, and energy extraction efforts are entitled to operate. These are waters where Beijing will use force to control for its sole benefit.
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This is a defining threat to the post-1945 international order. Under current understanding, international waters and airspace are free to all nations. If China establishes dominion over the South China Sea, it will be able to hold the prosperity of all nations hostage to the ransom of their political submission. Sovereign governments will be made feudal subjects of the Chinese Communist Party imperium or else they won’t be able to trade. Xi wants to validate his belief that communist might is his path to global hegemony.
This is why he has ordered the People’s Liberation Army to risk highly dangerous interceptions of U.S. military aircraft operating in international airspace. It’s why he is building nuclear weapons stockpiles and delivery systems. It’s why his submarine forces are training closely with Russia. The new Mao wants his bullying to work with his potent means of waging war. No sovereign nation can afford to tolerate Beijing’s gambit, which would bring economic ruin and lost sovereignty.
Fortunately, there are signs of hope.
Having replaced Beijing’s puppet Rodrigo Duterte as president, Ferdinand Marcos is taking firm action to defend the Philippines’s national interest. Manila’s coast guard is making regular supply runs to marines stationed on the Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands chain within Manila’s exclusive economic zone. A 2016 international tribunal utterly repudiated Beijing’s claims over these waters, but China ignores this and maintains its claims. Chinese coast guard vessels have attacked their Philippines counterparts by ramming them and firing water cannons at them.
This matters to the U.S. President Joe Biden has creditably asserted America’s “ironclad” treaty commitment to defend the Philippines in the event of a Chinese attack. But more is needed. Washington should immediately provide military equipment to help the Philippines defend its interests. Biden should also push the European Union to press Beijing over its transgressions.
Xi fears increased European alignment with the U.S. With China’s economy weak and Xi’s policies facing greater scrutiny, the time is ripe for Europe to exert economic leverage on Beijing. EU President Ursula von der Leyen has taken tentative steps, but she and her colleagues should turn the volume up on their rhetoric and threaten more action.
The U.S. should also engage Vietnam, which shares deep frustration with Chinese behavior. We should also strengthen our ties with the Philippines with joint military exercises in the South China Sea. Were the U.S., Australia, Vietnam, the United Kingdom, and EU nations such as France and Germany to conduct joint exercises in the Spratly Islands chain, Beijing would have to choose between conflict and a return to international rules. If India doesn’t want to join those exercises, the U.S. should suspend its China-focused military support for New Delhi in the Himalayas.
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China must not be allowed to succeed. Xi believes he can dominate the South China Sea and purge the world’s oceans of fishing stocks. He has made China an overt threat to all nations except those, such as Russia, that have already made themselves his subjects.
It’s understandable that the world is focused on Israel’s war with Hamas. But the U.S. must not lose sight of urgent concerns farther east. Xi is aggressively working to stanch the unparalleled prosperity and order since 1945. The U.S. must do everything possible to ensure that he does not succeed.
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