Chinese – US Navies hold High-Level Talks about South China Sea

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Chinese – US Navies hold High-Level Talks about South China Sea

October 29th, 2015

Awake Goy

Christof Lehmann (nsnbc) : Chinese Admiral Wu Shengli and his U.S. counterpart, Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral John Richardson are to hold high-level talks about the situation in the South China Sea, disputes about the security of waterways, and China’s construction of islands on archipelagos.

USS Lassen, US Navy

The on Thursday were arranged after a U.S. warship, earlier this week, challenged Chinese territorial claims, leading to a standoff on the open seas and a diplomatic standoff.

Admirals Wu Shengli and John Richardson are reportedly to discuss recent developments in the South China Sea as well as Chinese – U.S. cooperation in the region. The meeting on Thursday will be held via a video link. It is the third of its kind between the Naval Chiefs of China and the United States.

On Tuesday the U.S. Navy’s Arleigh Burke Class guided missile destroyer USS Lassen entered the 12 nautical miles zone around the Spratly archipelago. The intrusion prompted the Chinese navy to track the USS Lassen while the Chinese government summoned the U.S.’s Ambassador to Beijing to protest.

The Chinese position is that it is constructing port and other facilities on islands and archipelagos that are sovereign Chinese territory. The United States, for its part, claims that China acts illegally by creating artificial islands on submerged archipelagos. Others again, complain about the adverse impact the Chinese construction has on the marine environment.

The USS Lassen’s patrol near the Spratley archipelago is widely being touted as “one of the most significant challenges yet to China’s claims around the newly constructed islands”. China, for its part, insists that the construction does not have military objectives while the United States, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines consider the Chinese projects as a potential threat to one of the world’s most busy shipping lanes.

From a Chinese perspective, one may argue, that asserting Chinese sovereignty over a shipping lane that is vital for Chinese import and export, while building islands within Chinese territory is a matter of national security too.

U.S.’ perception of China’s “String of Pearls”.

The dispute happens within a wider geopolitical context that includes U.S./ South Korean vs. North Korean interests, Chinese vs. Japanese interests about the Diaoyu Dao or Senkaku Islands, the U.S.’s strategy to assert influence along what is described as “China’s String of Pearls“, and China’s counter-strategy to the United States’, asserting control over waterways that are of vital interest for China, but also for the United States’ regional allies and partners bordering the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific.

Ni Lexiong, a naval expert at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law noted that neither China nor the United States wish to provoke a military conflict; That said, Ni Lexiong also stressed that it is hard to see either side backing down because key interests of both sides are involved.

CH/L – nsnbc – 29.10.2015