Deutsch
Tiếng Việt
The main outline of US’s policy in the Asian region, especially with China and the South China Sea
The main lines of US’s policy in the Asian region, especially with China and the South China Sea area of US Presidential Administration Donald Trump were analyzed in detail in the article by Mark J. Valencia, senior scholar at the East Sea Research Institute in Haikou, China, published in the Japan Times last June.
Continuing the Obama policy, emphasizing the military aspect
Initially, the Trump administration had a stern attitude in criticizing issues related to China in general and China’s actions in the South China Sea in particular. However, recently, the Trump administration seems to have begun to take a rather modest stance. In fact, that policy is somewhat familiar. It is a continuation of the tactics of the predecessor Barack Obama, but it seems to emphasize military elements.
The US military’s freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs) in the South China Sea are considered as indicators to measure the US’s determination in the South China Sea issue. Under US President Barack Obama, the United States has carried out at least six maritime freedom operations in the South China Sea to challenge China’s claims.
Last May, the Trump administration also performed its first FONOP operation in the South China Sea. The USS Dewey rocket destroyer has conducted training within 12 nautical miles of the Mischief Reef, which China built artificial (illegal) islands in the South China Sea.
The United States Department of Defense later announced that its navy would continue to conduct regional maritime activities at larger scale, although they did not necessarily intend to comprehensively challenge China. The Pentagon insists that the frequency and extent of such disclosure in the future depends on the actual situation in the South China Sea.
“Make a deal!”
In addition, scholar Mark J. Valencia said that prior to the first FONOP operation, the Trump administration rejected three requests from the US Pacific Command (PACOM) to carry out new FONOP operations when China claimed sovereignty over the South China Sea.
According to Valencia, there are indications that President Trump is taking a “negotiating” approach in his foreign policy by taking back actions and criticisms aimed at China on a global level and in the South China Sea in particular, in exchange for China’s assistance in stopping nuclear weapons and North Korea’s missile development program.
That approach is the foundation for recent US activities and declaration. US Secretary of Defense James Mattis has balanced his praise of China for helping North Korea and criticizing “China’s military activities on artificial islands”, “maritime claims contrary to international law”.
However, his tone sounded harsher when he stressed that the United States “can not and will never accept unilateral forced changes to the status quo in the South China Sea.”
Mattis also outlined a combined policy that both supports and proves “international law” when necessary; promotes a deeper connection to security issues; strengthens US military capabilities in the region; strengthens US defense relations with willing partners and alliances, including training and arms sales. Basically, this approach is similar to that under Secretary of Defense Ashton Carton in the Asia-Pacific region.
But recently, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson expressed a stronger stance when he told Congress on June 14 that he warned China of its current foreign policy of “pushing the United States – China to conflict situations” if the conflict is not resolved properly.
The person in front of the “spearhead”
However, scholar Valencia said that because President Donald Trump, Secretary of Defense Mattis, Secretary of State Tillerson seems too preoccupied with other issues both domestically and internationally, then Commander PACOM, Admiral Harry Harris seemed to become the “spearhead” of Washington’s strategic approach to China. According to security analyst Carl Thayer, Harris has always followed American traditions in the Asian region. ” At the very least, he is responsible for implementing the policy”.
Observers say part of Defense Minister Mattis’s speech at the Shangri-La, which criticized the crackdown on the South China Sea, mirrors Harris’s view and US stronger position in the South China Sea.
“We will continue to work in areas where we can but be ready to confront if we have to. We continue to focus on building important relationships, but at the same time ensuring that the United States has the strength to fight aggressively to implement security commitments and also to strengthen US diplomacy”.
In short, the policy of the South China Sea issue of Donald Trump’s administration is a follow-up to Obama’s policy but more emphasing on the military aspect. However, if China is unwilling or unsatisfactory on the issue of the DPRK or on other deals proposed by the US, the military element of American foreign policy is likely to become the main factor, even the only one./.
Aufrufe: 53