The Barack Obama administration has been very busy dealing
with nuclear negotiations with Iran, a war against the Islamic State, a
new conflict in Yemen and the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. Yet the
understandable focus on these other crises has obscured China’s
efforts to speed up its militarization of the South China Sea. Now, Chinese
progress has reached the point that senior Pentagon officials and Congressional
leaders are demanding the administration do something about it.
There is no shortage
of evidence of China’s rapid buildup of infrastructure and armaments in
disputed territory far from its physical borders. Satellite photos released last month
show that in the past year, China has built several entirely new islands in
disputed waters using land-reclamation technology, and then
constructed military-friendly facilities on them. In the Spratly Islands,
new Chinese land masses have been equipped with helipads and anti-aircraft
towers, raising regional concerns that
Beijing is using thinly veiled military coercion to establish control in
an area where six Asian nations have claims.
Adm. Harry
Harris, commander of US Pacific Fleet, sounded the alarm in a speech in
Australia on Wednesday, calling the Chinese project “unprecedented” and saying
that the construction is part of a larger campaign of provocative actions
against smaller Asian states.
“China is creating a
‘Great Wall of Sand’ with dredges and bulldozers over the course of months,” he
warned, adding that it raised “serious questions about Chinese
intentions.”
For example, satellite
photos taken by Airbus Defence and Space and published by Jane’s in February, show
that over the past year China has built a 74,300-square-meter island
on top of Hughes Reef in the Spratly Islands, where no island existed before.
China also began a reclamation and construction project at nearby Gavin’s Reef.
Both islands now have helipads and anti-aircraft towers.
China has also
expanded its already created islands on the Spratlys’ Johnson South Reef,
Cuarteron Reef, Gaven Reef and Fiery Cross Reef — the last of which can
accommodate an airstrip, according to the US military. Harris
said China has created more than 3.9 square kilometers of “artificial landmass”
in the South China Sea. China’s claims are based on what’s known as the nine-dash line, which if implemented
would grant China 90 percent of the entire Sea.
Top Asia watchers in
Congress have been asking the Obama administration to confront China on the
issue and devote more attention to the increasingly tense situation in the
region. In the late hours of the debate over the Senate budget last weekend,
three senators added two amendments aimed at pushing the Obama administration
to reinvigorate its so-called Pivot to Asia.
The first of those
amendments, sponsored by Senate Foreign Relations Committee members Robert
Menendez, Cory Gardner and Ben Cardin, calls on the administration to develop
and make public a comprehensive strategy to ensure freedom of navigation in the
Pacific. It would also allow Congress to fund more training and exercises
by the US military and its Asian partners.
A second amendment, authored by
Gardner, the new chairman of the Asia subcommittee of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, calls for an independent agency such as the Government
Accountability Office to review what the administration is actually spending on
the Asia pivot and to make recommendations on how it might be better
managed.
“It’s important that
the American people have a full accounting of the resources that have been
devoted to this important policy and whether they have been prioritized
effectively,” Gardner told me in a statement.
These pieces of
legislation are the latest effort by Congress to find out exactly what the
administration is doing to counter China’s moves. On March 19, all four leaders
of the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees wrote a letter to Secretary of State
John Kerry and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter calling on the administration to
wake up to the graveness of the situation in the South China Sea. “Without
a comprehensive strategy for addressing the PRC’s broader policy and conduct,”
the senators wrote, “longstanding interests of the United States, as well as
our allies and partners, stand at considerable risk.”
The letter points out
that $5 trillion in global trade transits through the South China Sea each
year. They assert that China stands in violation of 2002 agreement it signed
with the Asean countries in which all parties pledged self-restraint
and avoid actions that could complicate the situation or escalate
tensions.
Bob Corker, chairman
of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told me that the Chinese are taking
advantage of the Obama administration’s focus on the Middle East: “China
understands that where this administration is, it’s a place where they can in
fact move ahead in the world.”
Asked about the
congressional letter, State Department spokesman Jeff Radke insisted that the
US is increasing its coordination with countries affected by China’s moves and
confronting the Chinese leadership privately. “We have consistently and
frequently raised with China our concerns over its large-scale land
reclamation, which undermines peace and stability in the South China Sea, and
more broadly in the Asia Pacific region,” he said.
But James
Clapper, the director of national intelligence, testified to Congress last
month that the Chinese don’t seem to be getting the message. He called their
actions “aggressive” and said Chinese claims in the South China Sea are “exorbitant.”
“Although China is
looking for stable ties with the United States, it’s more willing to accept
bilateral and regional tensions in pursuit of its interests, particularly on
maritime sovereignty issues,” Clapper said.
The
Beijing government has stated clearly that it believes its expansion
in the South China Sea is both legal and non-threatening, refusing to address
the region’s concerns in any substantive way. It complained loudly when the US and
India took the relatively innocuous step of issuing a joint statement
referring to their desire to address the issue.
No matter the state of
the Middle East and Eastern Europe, the Obama administration’s lack of
response to China’s maritime aggression is worrisome. China is testing how
far it can push the status quo before Washington does something. The
Pentagon and Congress are clearly telling Obama that the response
needs to come before China’s military takeover of the South China Sea is
complete.
Josh Rogin is a
Bloomberg View columnist who writes about national security and foreign
affairs.
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