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| Admiral Harry Harris (Image: Wikipedia) |
By COLIN CLARK
WASHINGTON: The gloves came off during today’s Senate Armed Services committee hearing on China and North Korea with Pacific Command’s Adm. Harry Harris saying that China seeks “hegemony in East Asia” and is unequivocally militarizing the South China Sea.
“In my opinion, China is clearly militarizing its position in the South China Sea. You’d have to believe in a flat earth to believe otherwise,” Harris told the committee this morning. But Chinese president Xi Jinping continues to claim that China is not militarizing the South China Sea, even though his regime is violating international law by building these islands in the first place, are building military-length runways on them and are stationing missiles and advanced radar sets on them.
Until very recently, US military officials were at pains to characterize China as a sometimes challenging partner in international affairs, one they characterized as a rising peer competitor but never as an opponent or an enemy. Saying China wants to be a hegemon — which is what China denounced the United States as for much of the last 50 years — comes perilously close to characterizing China as an opponent. Harris’ comments are not there yet, but we are edging closer to a Cold War in the Pacific.
The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies issued this detailed assessment of the situation yesterday:
“This month’s deployment of HQ-9 surface-to-air missiles on Woody Island in the Paracels, while notable, does not alter the military balance in the South China Sea. New radar facilities being developed in the Spratlys, on the other hand, could significantly change the operational landscape in the South China Sea. And along with the development of new runways and air defense capabilities, they speak to a long-term anti-access strategy by China—one that would see it establish effective control over the sea and airspace throughout the South China Sea.”
Read the full story at Breaking Defense