Winds of war in the Chinese sea

(To Antonio Vecchio)
01/10/18

The month of September has seen an increase in tensions between China and the United States, as they have not seen for some time.

In the first days of the month, bilateral training activities1 conducted in the area by the US attack group (photo) of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan with the Japanese naval forces of self-defense, they had given the firm reaction of Beijing that had defined them true provocations.

From the 11 to the September 17, the participation of Beijing, with about 3000 soldiers, has contributed to increase the tension. Vostok 2018, the biggest military exercise ever undertaken by Russia since the end of the Cold War.

Last week, finally, the news of the Chinese refusal to the request for the docking of a US military ship, the USS Wasp2, which should have stopped in Hong Kong in October, for a courtesy visit and to refuel. This action, together with the call of a team admiral on a mission to the United States to participate in the 23 ° International Symposium on Maritime Strength, to be certainly connected to the sanctions that Washington has imposed on an agency of the Chinese armed forces, the Department for Development of equipment, for the recent acquisition from Moscow of 10 Sukhoi Su-35 aircraft (photo) and S-400 anti-aircraft systems.

For the USA, this purchase infringed the sanctions imposed on Russia in relation to the Ukrainian issue and interference in US domestic politics.

Beijing's reaction was not long in coming, with the statement by the Deputy Director of the Office for International Military Cooperation at the Central Military Commission, Huang Xueping, who defined the US measure as "unreasonable" is "a manifest violation of the basic rules of international relations", Adding that it will bring a"serious damage"to bilateral military relations.

Therefore, the postponement is not surprising indefinitely of the second meeting organized as part of the "communication mechanism" established between the major states of the two countries, programmed by the 25 to the past 27 September.

In this case too, the provision coincided with the over-the-week flight of strategic B-52 bombers3 on the waters of the South and East China Sea that Beijing considers as internal, and with the news of the sale in Taiwan, by the USA, of spare parts for F-16 fighter-bombers and other combat aircraft (C-130 and F-5) , for an estimated value of 330 million dollars. This news has caused much concern in Beijing, since it follows a few months of the sale of armaments (especially missiles) and equipment, amounting to 1,4 billion dollars, and is likely to precede, as anticipated this week by the head South China Morning Post from Hong Kong, the sale of M1A1 wagons Abrams Books that Taipei has been asking for some time.

Last June, the visit to China by the US Defense Secretary (photo), James Mattis, had bode well in the beginning of a dialogue phase between the two powers, but the sanctions imposed by Trump the following month for an amount of 34 billions of dollars (then ascended to 50) of commercial exchange, formally aimed at punishing the huge Chinese surplus, but - in essence - to hinder the technological development program traced by the plan "Made in China 2025, have triggered the firm reaction Beijing, which in turn imposed tariffs on many products from the USA. What's more, this week Washington has announced new duties for 200 billion USD.

It is easy to understand how the stakes are strategically relevant for both the contenders, given that the final result of the ongoing comparison will depend on the future balance of the area and the global role of China.

For Washington, containing Beijing has become "the" priority, in which the visit of US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, to tighten alliances and consolidate bilateral collaboration activities military.

To this end, the US Navy has long been committed to affirming the "freedom of navigation" in the waters of the Chinese Sea: supporting the numerous allies of the region, but above all to hinder what Xi Jinping has repeatedly referred to as the "rebirth" of China, who entrusts the realization of future projects to "his" sea, and whose total control he will never renounce.

The Chinese sea is in fact for Beijing, what the Mediterranean was for the Romans: a large "internal" sea, which, besides ensuring the flow of goods, allowed it to play the role of "maritime power".

A role from which no state with "global" aspirations has ever been able to do without: it was so for Rome, for London, and in our time it is for Washington. Now Beijing demands it.

The "pivot to Asia" inaugurated by Obama is entering a decisive phase.