U.S. Warns That China's Expulsion of Navy Near Disputed Islands Is a 'Serious Threat' to Sea Travel

https://www.newsweek.com/ ^ | 5/28/20 | BY TOM O'CONNOR ON

[RomanSoldier19]

he Chinese military has said it chased off a U.S. warship near a disputed set of islands in the South China Sea, but the Navy contended the vessel was acting within international law.

Senior Colonel Li Huamin, the spokesman for the Chinese People's Liberation Army's Southern Theater Command, said in a statement Thursday by official military outlets that the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Mustin "illegally intruded" into territorial waters near the Paracel Islands, known to China as the Xisha Islands, earlier that day. As a result, Li said Chinese sea and air units were dispatched to "warn off" and "expel" the vessel.

"The provocative actions by the United States have seriously undermined China's sovereignty and security interests, seriously violated international laws and regulations and severely damaged the peace and stability of the region," he said. "It is a brazen act of navigational hegemony."

[Zhang Fei]

[China is going more and more kinetic.]

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What Xi wants is what all conquerors want - not war, but the fruits of war. Winning territory without war is the best kind of victory - both high prestige and indicative of effective leadership, while preserving resources that can be used on other ventures farther afield.

[dragnet2]

Bookmark

[A strike]

To paraphrase from Top Gun: within 20mins ? ,

“bullsh1t this thing will be over in 5 minutes.”

[Zhang Fei]

[it seems to be a redo of when Hitler first attacked the West and then found the Soviets smiling and watching to be threatening as he found himself caught in the momentum, and so attacked the Soviets by surprise.]

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The propaganda will frame these situations as threats for morale purposes, the idea being that soldiers will fight harder if they think the war is for the protection of hearth and home. But what Hitler wanted to do is what conquerors have wanted since the beginning - to see how fast their chosen vehicle can go - to take their armies to the limit and beyond. When their armies suffer significant reverses, to the point where potential collapse seems possible - that’s when they stop advancing. Out of necessity rather than desire.

[Does so]

In the 1930s, Japan built runways on islands in the SW Pacific. (Islands lost by Germany through WWI reparations).

Nothing bad happened for years.

[Spirochete]

Wrong Way smacked into the the EP-3, forcing it to land.

It wasn't "forced" to land. The dipshit pilot should have ditched it at sea, but chose to land it at an enemy base.

[Spirochete]

i did not realize our great USN has standing orders to run away

Really. Cruise through waters they claim, show the flag, assert freedom of navigation and rights of passage. Run away when confronted.

Sad and disgraceful.

[Tallguy]

The old stomping grounds of the Gulf of Tonkin Yacht Club...

[Tallguy]

That’s a matter of interpretation, I’m sure.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Perhaps a few MOABS on the fake islands

[Tallguy]

Those ‘islands’ would be a smoking wreck after the first salvo of Tomahawks. They are useless in an actual shooting war. But they are great as bases from which their “coast guard” can push around the local fishermen.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

I’m all for an accident happening to them

[Tallguy]

The Chinese are playing with fire. The established rules of the sea are there for navigational safety. Frankly, China’s neighbors need to focus on who the real threat is. Countries like the Philippines have an uneasy historical relationship with the US. Fine, I get that. But if you let the Chinese push you around they’ll make you a colony. It’s unlikely that the US would do the same at this point.

[Zhang Fei]

[It wasn’t “forced” to land. The dipshit pilot should have ditched it at sea, but chose to land it at an enemy base.]

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And risked the lives of an entire crew, in *peacetime*? In wartime, maybe, given the sensitivity of the codes. I don’t think we issue suicide pills to surveillance plane pilots as we did to Gary Powers. And obviously Powers chose not to partake. I can’t say I blame him.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Well said.

[piasa]

No, the Chinese are attempting to portray a ship that’s cruising through an area they want to make a part of their territorial waters as if it is ‘running away’ because that looks a lot better in print than ‘the US ship cruised through imaginary Chinese territory and there was nothing China dared to do about it.’

[sauropod]

Bkmk

[piasa]

True, but you can seriously screw up someone’s ports and disable their drydocks so they cannot control the area either..

[Truthoverpower]

Nukes can make all your plans end real quick communist mofo

[whistleduck]

Or flown the airworthy aircraft to the PI or Guam. Pilot panic.