Pacific Fleet drafts plan to show might
WASHINGTON: The US Pacific Fleet is drafting plans for a global show of force to warn China and demonstrate resolve to deter Beijing’s military actions, CNN reported, citing several unidentified US defence officials.
The draft proposal from the navy recommends that the Pacific Fleet conduct a series of operations during a single week in November that would involve American warships, combat aircraft and troops to demonstrate that the US can counter potential adversaries quickly on several fronts, CNN said.
The report came as US Vice-President Mike Pence prepared to provide details to support President Donald Trump’s charge that China is meddling in the 2018 US elections through a campaign of propaganda, spies, tariffs and coercive measures.
US-China military tensions have also been rising in recent weeks as the trade war between the two nations worsens, fuelling concern in Beijing that the US is intent on stopping China from threatening American dominance of the Indo-Pacific.
The plan fits with the “larger consequences” Secretary of Defence James Mattis referred to at June’s Shangri-La Dialogue security conference that China would face for militarising the South China Sea, according to Kelsey Broderick, an associate for Asia at Eurasia Group in Washington.
“China would view a US naval exercise of this magnitude in its territorial waters as a significant provocation, likely further cutting off mil-to-mil contact,” said Ms Broderick.
“It would also empower the hardliners in China that view the US as committed to containing China economically and militarily — making a settlement on the trade dispute even more unlikely in 2018.” she said.
The US this week accused China’s navy of “unsafe and unprofessional” conduct near an occupied reef in the South China Sea after a Chinese destroyer maneuvered close to the bow of an American warship.
China last month refused a US warship entry to Hong Kong and Beijing’s top naval officer cancelled a high-level meeting with his US counterpart.