By Prashanth Parameswaran
Adm. Scott Swift talks to students about regional issues in the Indo-Asia Pacific Region during the Naval War College cooperative strategy forum. (U.S. Air Force/Staff Sgt. Christopher Hubenthal) >>
Scott Swift voices alarm about Beijing’s South China Sea behavior.
Unilateral assertiveness is unacceptable in Asia, a U.S. admiral warned Monday in a speech clearly referencing Chinese behavior in the South China Sea.
In a speech delivered to the annual U.S. Pacific Fleet Cooperative Strategy Forum in Hawaii on December 14, U.S. Pacific Fleet commander Admiral Scott A. Swift took aim at Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea. With ships and aircraft subject to superfluous warnings, merchant vessels diverted after entering ‘military zones,’ and fishermen subject to intimidation, Swift – who did not explicitly tie these actions to China – suggested that Beijing was transforming the status quo in the South China Sea and eroding the rules-based system.
“If even one regional navy – or maritime forces under its command — does not fly, sail or operate in accordance with international law, then unilateral assertiveness could become the new normal in this region, driving increased instability in multiple domains,” he said in his address to more than 100 personnel at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. “I think we all can agree that such a trend is unacceptable.”
Read the full story at The Diplomat