China-US spat a drop in the ocean
By Jian Junbo

HONG KONG - Tensions over a China-United States naval standoff in the South China Sea seem to be rising, with the US sending an armed destroyer to escort the US Navy surveillance ship which was confronted by Chinese vessels near Hainan Island last weekend.

But analysts say the incident will not severely dent Sino-US relations, unlike a similar standoff after Chinese and US military aircraft collided over the same island in 2001. Both countries are keen on maintaining close ties in the face of the global financial crisis and observers expect the controversy to blow over.

The incident is more an indication of the growing capabilities of China's military to safeguard its national interests in the South

 

China Sea and elsewhere - a reality the US now needs to deal with, whether it likes it or not.

On Sunday, the Pentagon accused China of harassing the Impeccable, an unarmed sub-hunting ship, claiming it was operating legally in international waters about 120 kilometers off Hainan, China's southernmost province. Hainan is the site of a Chinese submarine base and other naval installations.

The Pentagon has said that the Chinese ships included a Chinese Navy intelligence collection ship, a Bureau of Maritime Fisheries Patrol Vessel, a State Oceanographic Administration patrol vessel and two small Chinese-flagged trawlers.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxi responded on Tuesday saying the US's claims were "gravely in contravention of the facts ... and totally unacceptable to China". He told reporters in Beijing that the Impeccable had "conducted activities in China's exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea without China's permission".

The next day, China's Defense Ministry urged the US to prevent any reoccurrence of the confrontation. Ministry spokesman Huang Xueping said the US navy vessel had violated Chinese and international laws such as the 1982 United Nations convention on the Law of the Sea - which China has signed but the US has not.

"China conducts normal activities of law enforcement in its own exclusive economic zone to defend its rights and interests, and such activities are justified and lawful," he said.

Although the US and other countries consider most of the South China Sea to be international waters, China claims an exclusive economic zone extending 200 nautical miles from its coastlines. International law allows non-hostile activities by foreign ships in a country's exclusive economic zone - so at heart of the controversy is China's claim that the activities of the Impeccable were indeed hostile.

Pentagon officials have said the Impeccable was looking for threats such as submarines and was towing a sonar apparatus which scans for submarines, mines and torpedoes, according to media reports. With its numerous Chinese military installations, Hainan offers rich hunting grounds for such surveillance; of particular interest is the new submarine base near Hainan's resort city of Sanya, which is home to the Chinese navy's most sophisticated craft.

It is clear that Chinese vessels confronted the US surveillance ship because it thought it was violating Chinese sovereignty, making the standoff similar in some ways to the air collision eight years ago over Hainan Island.

On April 1, 2001 a US ARIES II signals surveillance aircraft was intercepted by two Chinese J-8II fighter jets about 110 kilometers from the island. One of the Chinese fighters began making close passes to the US aircraft, and on its third collided with it, slicing the J-8 in half and killing its pilot. The crippled US aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing at a Chinese military airport in Hainan, with the fallout from the incident resulting in a tense 11-day standoff between China and the US over the return of the aircraft and its crew.

Despite Beijing's toughly-worded protests this time around, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met behind closed doors on Wednesday in Washington and agreed to reduce tensions and avoid a repeat of the incident. But neither side yielded in their conflicting versions of the incident, and the United States is not giving in to China's demands that it cease naval surveillance. On Thursday, a Pentagon official said the US had sent the USS Chung-Hoon, a heavily armed destroyer, to escort the Impeccable.

With tensions high, US President Barack Obama met Yang in the Oval Office on Thursday and stressed the need for more frequent communication to avoid future military confrontations as they could upset a bilateral relationship which is crucial to solving global crises, the Associated Press reported. "Confrontation hurts both sides," Yang said later in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think-tank. The two countries, he said, should "shelve differences" that cannot be immediately resolved and focus on cooperation.

It is likely the incident will be brought up in the first meeting between President Hu Jintao and Obama at the Group of 20 summit in London next month.

Clearly, this is not the first time for the US navy has conducted surveillance in that area of the South China Sea, as the Pentagon said the Impeccable was conducting "routine" operations. However, this is perhaps the first time that the Chinese have tried to stop American operations there. The incident suggests the Chinese military's tolerance of US naval spy operations near its coast is increasingly wearing thin.

This change reflects the reality of China's increasingly aggressive military stance in the South China Sea. After three decades of reform, China has grown much stronger militarily and it has the confidence to safeguard its national interests. Last week, the Chinese government announced its defense budget would increase by nearly 15% this year, despite the economic slump.

In the past, security issues in the South China Sea were seen as too remote to reach the top agenda of Chinese leaders or to be of concern to the Chinese public. But now there is growing concern in China over the country's interests there, including the Nansha (Spratly) islands.

While China and Taiwan claim Nansha, neighboring countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia also claim sovereignty over and occupy several of the the islands' reefs. (See Buffer benefits in Spratly initiative, Asia Times Online, February 22, 2008.)

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi on March 5 landed on one controversial reef, known as Layang Layang or Swallow's Reef, declaring his county's sovereignty over it. His act prompted many Chinese netizens to express indignation over what they called "a foreign occupation", with their outcry putting pressure on the government over the sovereignty issue.

So the naval clash with the US could also be seen as signal from the government that it has not only the will but also the capability to protect its would-be national interests on the South China Sea. It could also be a message of legitimacy before the public, and to possibly broaden the international space for the country's economic development in future.

China's dispatch of a small naval fleet to the Gulf of Aden off Somalia to protect Chinese cargo ships against modern-day pirates last month demonstrated that the Chinese navy has expanded from an off-shore defense force to a "blue water" navy. The Chinese military now openly talks about the possibility of building aircraft carriers.

In face of these new realities, the US perhaps has to adapt and readjust its policy of so-called "routine" spying operations off the coasts of China. What would the US say if one day in future Chinese naval spy ships were found off the coasts of the United States?

While it is certain that some more skirmishes and conflicts between these two powers will occur, they are unlikely to develop into serious conflicts, at least not in the foreseeable future. The two countries now have too many common interests and cannot afford a breakdown in relations. The US needs Chinese money to help its ailing economic and financial system - China is now the US's largest creditor - and China still needs the US in its drive for modernization.

It may take a long time for the US to adapt itself to the reality of the swift rise and military modernization of China, as the US is not used to facing challenges in its so-called traditional sphere of influence - the Asia-Pacific. But now, it should take note that China is no longer willing to always comply with America's dominance in the region. Times have changed.

In the long run, the US will need China to tackle important global issues, such as energy, protection of the environment, terrorism and reform of the international financial system. And if the US wants to continue policing the world, it should respect China's national interests in the South China Sea. Nonetheless, the incident is unlikely to shake the sound foundations of Sino-US relations, and is certainly not expected to wreck the good diplomatic atmosphere built up since Hillary Clinton's friendly visit to China last month.

Dr Jian Junbo, an assistant professor at Institute of International Studies, Fudan University, China, is now a visiting scholar at the University of Hong Kong's Centre of Asian Studies.

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