Blog Post

AEIdeas

On September 17th, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs David Shear testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on US security strategy in Asia. In written testimony, Shear stated:

Between 2013 and 2014, we increased global FON [freedom of navigation] operations by 84 % , the majority of which were conducted in the Asia Pacific. As Secretary Carter has stated, the United States will continue to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, as US forces do all around the world, and our FON Operations are a critical example of this.

However, under questioning Shear revealed that the US hasn’t conducted a freedom of navigation operation near China’s man-made islands in the South China Sea since 2012. The entire premise of a FON mission is to assert America’s right to operate in a particular space. By avoiding Chinese-occupied reefs in the South China Sea, the US is tacitly acknowledging Beijing’s “sovereignty” in these international waters.

China claims that its artificial “islands,” on which it has constructed military installations, should be granted the 12-nautical mile radius of territorial waters. According to international law, however, these former reefs should only generate a 500 meter “safety zone.” Given that over $5 trillion in international trade passes through the South China Sea annually, this dispute is critical to the future of free navigation. This administration’s failure to defend international norms now will only make it more difficult for future American leaders to challenge China’s unlawful claims.

The White House’s current risk-averse approach to the South China Sea is an attempt to avoid incidents similar to the 2003 Hainan Island crisis, when a Chinese fighter jet intercepted and then collided with a US EP-3 patrol aircraft in international waters, forcing the EP-3 to crash land. However, while the Chinese will continue to intercept and track American planes and ships operating in their near seas, this is not a reason for the United States to avoid contested spaces out of fear of confrontation and allow international waters to be recognized as de facto Chinese.

Shared strategic space is a challenge the US has not faced since the Cold War, and American political leaders must now relearn that the attendant risks can be managed. To this end, the US military continues to establish a range of bilateral risk reduction mechanisms with the PLA (Notably, the Obama administration signed a memorandum of understanding on rules of behavior for air and maritime encounters with China in 2014). In fact, US military leaders are confident they are capable of managing low levels of friction in the South China Sea. The head of US Pacific Command (PACOM), Admiral Harry B. Harris, is an outspoken proponent of FON missions over China’s man-made islands.

A normalized US presence in these areas will signal US resolve to adversaries and allies alike by aligning our stated policy and actions in the region.