Posted on 04/22/2020 9:02:57 PM PDT by caww
An Australian frigate has joined three U.S. warships in the South China Sea near an area where a Chinese vessel is suspected to be exploring for oil, near waters also claimed by Vietnam and Malaysia, officials said on April 22.
The warships arrived this week close to where the Chinese government survey ship Haiyang Dizhi 8 has been operating, which is in turn near where a vessel operated by Malaysia’s Petronas state oil company is conducting exploratory drilling, regional security sources have said.
The United States has accused China of pushing its presence in the South China Sea while other claimants are pre-occupied with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.
(Excerpt) Read more at theepochtimes.com ...
The filthy Chinese Communists are already making moves on Malaysian and Indonesian territory. Look on any map to see Communist Chinese claims. It’s like Argentina claiming the Gulf of Mexico...
What percentage of the traffic in the South China Sea is going to or coming from China and is their naval presence out of proportion to their percentage of the traffic there?
we really don’t know a whole lot about the extent of China’s blue-water navy.
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Sure we do. Bill Clinton had them on all our ships learning methods, and procedures, orders of battle and so on. Satellites routinely photograph them, Jane’s and others report on their specs and capabilities - along with hosts of other assets, not to mention the Chinese themselves.
Its not a blue water navy yet, BTW.
In my statement the word “capability” as opposed to “navy” may make my point more clear. China’s “blue water capability” is the nation’s ability to project military power overseas. It is a mistake to use a soviet-era military intelligence assessment of force with China. China IS NOT the Soviet Union and it is a profound mistake if we look at them like they are. Counting aircraft carriers, destroyers, frigates, subs, etc in the Jiangnan shipyards does not provide an accurate picture of China’s insidiously complex procurement methods.
China is also expert at mis and dis-information. With respect to its naval capability, which has been a national humiliation to them, it is especially obtuse.
“The planned ultimate size and composition of China’s navy is not publicly known,” O’Rourke said. “In contrast to the U.S. Navy … China does not release a navy force-level goal or detailed information about planned ship procurement rates, planned total ship procurement quantities, planned ship retirements and resulting projected force levels.”
China intertwines its commercial and military activities. Commercial ship building in China has been rapidly accelerating since the beginning of the twenty first century. This is a military threat.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.7249/mg334af.10.pdf
https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=cmsi-red-books
We, in fact, do not know a whole lot about the extent of China’s blue water naval capabilities. Warfare, after all, is the Tao of deception.
None of my collegues at ONI and USPACOM would share your assessment. There are a lot of gaps, but we do know large baseline capabilities as demonstrated by what they do and don’t do. And other stuff :P
Understood.
In no way intending any disrespect to ONI, and especially the great scholarship that comes out of the Navy War College (CMSI) - top notch scholarship.
I just look at China from a different vantage point which colors all my assessments - even if they may off the mark at times. It’s the unknown unknowns which always seem to come in abundance with China and make me worry.
Get your gut feelings are not wrong.
The game is afoot.
And the covid-19 story is just cover for what’s about to happen.
China made its move to cut off North Korea from further relations with us by taking out Kim Jong goon now they’re moving to consolidate their power over Vietnam
It’s going to go hot.
Every satellite that is not our own needs to be taken down now.
I think the tripwires for regime survival and the contest of space are more compelling.
They are indeed.
Oriana Skylar Mastro is very interesting on the general subject.
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