By Ling Yunzhi
According to the official microblog of the think tank, South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative, two US Navy reconnaissance ships, which includes a US oceanographic survey ship USNS Henson and a Victorious-class ocean surveillance ship, USNS Loyal (T-AGOS-22), have been frequently detected in the South China Sea recently. The US military has frequently dispatched warships and fighter jets and even applied space-based and electromagnetic dimension platforms to conduct situation awareness reconnaissance operations in the South China Sea, in an attempt to seize the initiative in terms of the regional strategic situation by building an all-round maritime situation reconnaissance system, and then to offset the strength growth of its antagonists in the South China Sea.
The South China Sea, as an important region for the US to carry out maritime situational awareness operations, has been included in its so-called "Indian-Pacific Maritime Situational Awareness System" and acted as an integral part of the US' global maritime situational awareness system. However, the US Navy is currently caught in the dilemma of fatigue caused by the aging of certain warships and the increased workload in the Indo-Pacific region, and is forced to seek cooperation with its allies when conducting overseas deployment and operations.
In May 2022, the US launched an Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA), an initiative with regional partners and allies to promote a free and open Pacific, at the Quad leaders' summit in Tokyoto avoid the dispersed deployment of troops along the frontline of Northeast Asia - Southeast Asia - South Pacific - Indian Ocean at great expenses, and meanwhile to realize the US' continued presence on the high seas and coastal areas to seize the initiative in the strategic situation at sea.
The US Navy's military activities in the South China Sea just coincided with the sensitive moments when the ASEAN Summit, the G20 Summit and the East Asia Summit were held. According to the US' power politics mentality as always, it is quite normal for the US to send a huge military force similar to the aircraft carrier battle group to the South China Sea to show off, a way consistent with its usual hegemonistic style. However, the US has been abnormal this time and merely sent an old cruiser and two reconnaissance ships to the South China Sea to perform operations. In addition, the number of US ships and reconnaissance aircraft to carry out provocative operations in the South China Sea has decreased significantly recently. These are somewhat surprising to the outside world.
It is believed that the US has had to deal with the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the tensions on the Korean Peninsula, so the US military has been obviously in lack of forces for military provocations in the South China Sea. At the same time, China's firm resolve to fight back and the ever-increasingly improved anti-access or area-denial strategy have been strong enough to make the US pay the price for its excessive provocations, which also acts as a strong deterrent to the US military. Given these reasons, the US has been forced to conduct more practical military operations in the South China Sea, the political symbolic meaning of which is far greater than the military value.
In addition, the attitude and feelings of Southeast Asian countries are also important factors that the US needs to take into account when conducting military provocations in the South China Sea. For the sake of their own security and development interests, ASEAN countries all wish the regional situation stable. Especially after China became a trusted friend of the ASEAN, the countries along the South China Sea have been keen on cooperating with China on relevant issues. The US military disturbance in the South China Sea is likely to cause disgust among the countries in the region, though the US is unwilling to give up its military activities and influence in the South China Sea. In this case, its move to send old warships and reconnaissance ships of low sensitivity to the South China Sea, has been highly proper considering the embarrassing US-ASEAN relations at present.
In all, the US, regardless of the norms of international relations and international law, has frequently conducted maritime situation awareness operations in the South China Sea, during which provocative military exercises and training have been seen now and again. This has fully domenstrated that the US' security concept has been deeply trapped in the dangerous zero-sum game pattern and cold war mentality. While China and ASEAN are struggling to promote the implementation of the Framework of a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, these practices of the US are obviously inappropriate. These are a manifestation of a deviation from the multilateral cooperation mechanism and consensus reached in the South China Sea, and tend to make the trend of "fragmentation" in the maritime security order in the region even more intense, becoming a footnote to the US' pursuit of "hegemony and national interests first".
(The author is a research fellow at the Center for Asia-Pacific Development Studies CAPDS of Nanjing University)
Editor's note: Originally published on thepaper.cn, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
