Yikes. The US is steaming mad after Chinese boats surrounded the Impeccable, a US Navy mapping ship, in international waters in the South China Sea, sometimes getting dangerously close. One Chinese boat came within twenty-five feet of the USN ship (photo above):At one point during the incident Sunday the unarmed USNS Impeccable turned fire hoses on an approaching Chinese ship in self defense, the Pentagon said. At another point a Chinese ship played chicken with the Americans, stopping dead in front of the Impeccable as it tried to sail away, forcing the civilian mariners to slam on the brakes.As if we needed any reminding that China is not really our friend. Well, maybe we do. The 2001 Hainan Island spy plane incident was largely forgotten because of 9/11 a few months later.
China thinks they can do this because they consider most of the South China Sea to be their territory, but the Obama administration says the US will continue naval operations there. The ship maps the ocean floor with sonar, according to the LAT, compiling information that can be used to steer Navy submarines or track subs of other countries.
It's both interesting and disturbing that this is happening as the United States and South Korea conduct joint military exercises in the region.
[left: The Impeccable's real mission was to investigate a giant X-shaped red tide between Vietnam and the Philippines.]
What do you think would be the reaction if China put some ships in International waters off the coast of America, maybe near Cuba? I am not saying what they did was right, but I am always curious how America would react if they were in our backyard.
ReplyDeleteThat's a very good question. The United States often does things that would be considered beyond the pale if another country were to do them.
ReplyDeletePart of that is that the US has been doing them for so long — maybe as part of efforts with other allies who don't do these things precisely because the US is doing them for them — that it's routine. But were another country to do it, it would be an escalation in tensions at least.
Spy planes along the Chinese coaststaying just outside of territorial waters (which are done for the benefit also of allies Taiwan, Japan, Australia, and South Korea) would be an example of that.
If China were to start doing that off the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, any island in the Hawaiian archipelago, or off one of the Channel Islands of southern California, it would be a major deal, because it's not a routine thing and not because it's illegal. (In my example, I'm assuming they don't already do this.)
But, in fact, CHINESE MILITARY VESSELS DO ENTER INTERNATIONAL WATERS OFF AMERICAN TERRITORY. This post talks about them trailing American military vessels and circumnavigating Guam.
The US just stopped and stared, watching carefully. They did not go up and dangerously provoke, as China did in 2001 and in this case (I'm dismayed that this potentially serious incident has been treated so glibly at Marmot's Hole, where it momentarily deteriorated into jokes about alleged Chinese penis size.
That was before they went and entered the territorial waters of Japan, a US ally. And then there is the not-so-occasional intrusions by Chinese boats (not military, though) into the waters of US ally South Korea and becoming violent.
So, in conclusion, I agree you have a point, but we have seen some of the disproportionate response from China. This kind of thing is an escalation, and it's not good for tensions. In spring 2001, tension dissipated primarily because of two things: (a) Bush took his lumps and sucked it up about the Chinese dismantling the plane for future "reverse engineering" while handling the entire affair with an aptitude quite surprising coming from him, and (b) the events of 9/11 a few months later threw America and China together as allies of convenient as both were fighting Muslim-based movements. (China's northwest Xinjiang Province is a hotbed of separatism.)
Kushibo,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the detailed response and great links. I bookmarked them and will have to give them a serious read later this week.
I remember the spy plane incident,but not too clearly. I will have to go back and read up on it as well.
I don't often spend the time to sort through the comments at the Marmot's Hole.
I agree that it raises tensions and maybe the outcome would have been less peaceful had it been an armed ship that China was provoking, but even an armed ship would have probably done the same thing and tried to leave the area.