The U.S. Navy announced Tuesday that Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group entered the South China Sea for “routine operations” amid a clash by the Chinese maritime militia with the Philippines. China’s provocation comes when Russia has increased forces near Ukraine. It is possible that the Biden Administration will test early on whether its model of liberal multilateralism can deter revisionist powers that are pressuring the interests of the United States.
The Philippines began sounding the alarm last month by Chinese militia vessels, which at one time gave a total of 220, were occupying the Whitsun reef west of the archipelago. The naval equivalent of Russia’s “little green men,” Chinese army-like fleets can disguise themselves as fishing fleets to give Beijing a plausible denial as it sinks into disputed waters.
An analysis by two U.S. Naval War College investigators last week found “no evidence of fishing during these laser-centered operations, but all indications of trolling for land claims.”
For more than a decade, China has been aggressive in establishing dominance in the waters surrounding the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan, building military installations and harassing the merchant ships of other nations. In 2016, an international court ruled that China was violating the law on the South China Sea. The Trump Administration sanctioned last summer the companies involved in building illegal islands there.
China seemed to slow its military buildup on the islands, but it can now resume. He seems determined to dominate the waterways of Southeast Asia, which among other things would place him in a stronger position to invade Taiwan. Slowing down or reversing the process will require coordination with “the Quad” (Japan, Australia, and India), as well as with Southeast Asian countries whose sovereignty directly violates incursions. Vietnam has been one of the most vocal countries in Southeast Asia when it comes to denouncing China’s maritime adventurism.