So, first, how big a deal is this, if Ash Carter gets on a very nice ship and decides to take a cruise in territorially disputed waters?
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BONNIE GLASER, Center for Strategic and global Studies: Well, Secretary Carter has done this previously, when he attended the Shangri-La dialogue in June of this year.
Viewed in this way, as a contest for power rather than for popularity, the country whose actions in the South China Sea look counterproductive is not China, but the US. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims.
So, this is something that the region supports generally. If you don’t use it, is that kind of what we’re stressing here by having carrier groups go through?
Despite China’s latest legal setback, both Glaser and Cook didn’t expect it change course.
There is no question this was a freedom of navigation operation (FONOP), but it was FONOP-lite. But Carter’s visit drew extra attention because of the ship’s location and the tensions surrounding China’s reclamation work, which Adm. Harry Harris, head of us forces in the Pacific, has likened to building a “great wall of sand” with the potential for confrontations to escalate into armed conflict.
“So, discussions of that nature, just trying to show we are normal sailors like them, have families just like them”. “No country wants to choose sides between the USA and China”.
“Many countries in the region are coming to the United States and asking us to do more with them so that we can keep the peace out here”, he said.
A Chinese destroyer shadowed the USS Lassen, repeatedly querying why it was in “Chinese waters”. These nations would welcome an increase in Japanese maritime-capacity-building efforts, which should take the form not just of patrol boat deliveries, but also by providing surveillance and telecommunications equipment, plus more joint military training and exercises during more frequent ship visits and alongside regional humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, and search and rescue multilateral training efforts. Lassen’s crew responded each time by stating that they were operating in accordance with worldwide law, and just passing through. Paragraph 4 states: “In the event of a dispute as to whether a court or tribunal has jurisdiction, the matter shall be settled by decision of that court or tribunal”.
So, next year, there is going to be likely a ruling that will come down and that will also have implications for the behavior of China and other countries going forward.
China has boycotted the proceedings and rejects the court’s authority in the case.
Numerous experts said this cautious approach could in fact reinforce China’s claim to sovereignty over the artificial islands in the Spratly Islands archipelago.
“It is the bounded duty of the Chinese government to uphold China’s territorial sovereignty and legitimate maritime right and interests”.
“Let me make this clear: The South China Sea islands have been China’s territory since ancient times”, Xi said in a speech during a visit to Singapore.
Despite the Lassen incident, the navy chiefs of China and the United States were quick to declare that their bilateral exchanges would continue. We had video of newly developed airstrips on a few of these islands and even military armaments that are really kind of ramping up.
China and Vietnam on Friday agreed to maintain peace and jointly try to resolve the South China Sea controversy.
Finally, they managed to engage in small talk. Subi Reef is one of the land features under scrutiny by the tribunal.
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Eventually, the Chinese destroyer that had followed the Lassen on its mission past the artificial islands peeled away. It might also declare an air defence identification zone off its mainland South China Sea coast.
