The controversial patrol by a U.S. warship in an area in the Spratly islands over which China claims sovereignty is having an unexpected fallout.
It has triggered a growing domestic perception that Beijing should swiftly militarise these islands, and test the resolve of the Washington-led alliance in the Pacific.
Washington’s unilateral decision to send the destroyer, USS Lassen, within 12 nautical miles of Zhubi reef — a part of the Spratly archipelago — has generated a volley of opinion that China must beef up its defences in the South China Sea. China claims sovereignty over the Spratly islands and its adjacent waters within the nine-dash-line. The littoral states of Vietnam, Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei contest the claim, which China says is rooted in history and post-war settlement governed by the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation.
Analysts say that by militarising a set of artificial islands atop the submerged coral reefs, China would be better positioned to influence the Malacca straits—the major trade artery that links the Indian and the Pacific ocean.
In turn this would test President Barack Obama’s “Asia Pivot” or Rebalance doctrine, based on the accumulation of forces in the Pacific, in alliance, mainly with Japan, South Korea and Australia, with Malacca straits as its focal point. An article in the state-run tabloid Global Times acknowledged that the US and Japan — the core pillars of the Asia Pivot — would have “calculated that the Strait of Malacca is within the radius of Chinese aircraft above the reefs”.
The entry of the USS Lassen under the guise of “freedom of navigation” is fast leading to a consensus in China that the artificial islands in the Spratly archipelago need to be militarised to counter the U.S. in the West Pacific.
Cui Tiankai, China’s ambassador to the US said shortly after the incident that Beijing has now to seriously think about beefing up its defence capabilities in the region.
"We have to make sure we have sufficient means to safeguard our sovereignty there, to protect our lawful rights there, and ... maintain peace and stability there, and nobody will have any more
illusion that it could continue to provoke," he observed. Chinese netizens are also urging their government to militarise the islands, following the US patrol.
The website China Military Online collated comments by Chinese netizens as published by the International Business Times. The online comments, advocating retaliation, included: "Attack," "fight," "sink it," "down with American imperialism," and, "finally the U.S. is giving us a reason to militarise the South China Sea."
The underlying tensions between China and the U.S. in the South China Sea are also having a fall-out on the bonding between Washington and its top allies. Australia, which has already defied the U.S. by joining the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), has announced that it would continue to hold the proposed naval drills with China in the South China Sea, notwithstanding the latest bout of tensions between Beijing and Washington. Spokesman for Australian defence minister Marise Payne said on Thursday that two Royal Australian Navy ships would still take part in exercises with their Chinese counterparts off the southeastern Chinese coast, not far from the disputed Spratly Islands.
The incident has also driven fissures within the ASEAN grouping. Indonesia has slammed the deployment of USS Lassen as exercises in “power projection”. “We disagree, we don't like any power projection,” said Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan.
Phay Siphan, spokesperson for Cambodia's Council of Ministers, was quoted as saying that the US is flexing its muscles and creating more tension in the area. However, the Philippines, has strongly defended the dispatch of the US warship.
