By Mu Chunshan
U.S. freedom of navigation operations could spark a more intense reaction than Washington bargained for.
Tuesday morning local time, the guided missile destroyer USS Lassen entered the waters near one of China’s artificial islands in the South China Sea. Within a few hours, this action sparked an enormously negative reaction in China. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Defense Ministry put out tough statements criticizing the move. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui summoned U.S. Ambassador Max Baucus to express China’s unhappiness. This series of actions is already approaching the most extreme levels of protest China’s foreign ministry has demonstrated toward other countries.
In fact, the response to the USS Lasser’s maneuvers from Chinese media and netizens alike is similar to the reactions after two of the worst crises in U.S.-China relations: the 1998 U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, and the collision of a U.S. EP-3 plane with a Chinese F-8 fighter jet in 2001. There are three main views being expressed.
One view is that this action by the U.S. military is a serious provocation toward China. The perceived motive is that the United States will not admit to the fact of China’s island-building in the South China Sea, nor to the territorial requirements that could come with those projects.
The second view is that the U.S. wanted to humiliate China at a time when the PLA’s military deployments in the South China Sea are still not perfect. The perceived goal here is to demonstrate to Japan, the Philippines, and other U.S. allies in Asia that Washington can sufficiently control the local great power.
The third view holds that the U.S. FONOPs are actually a reaction to Washington meeting strong Russian resistance in Syria and other geopolitical hot spots. Because Moscow has “checked” the U.S. in the global chess match, the thinking goes, the U.S. military turned to the Asia-Pacific to flex its muscles.
Read the full story at The Diplomat