It’s time for tougher U.S. pushback against China’s maritime misconduct

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You can now listen to Fox News articles ! It ’ randomness time the U.S. reacted decisively to China ’ s growing challenge to exemption of seafaring in international waters, specially in Asia.

just this week, two chinese jet fighters intercepted a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea, forcing it to descend to avoid a collision. Less sensational, but of greater strategic importance, was China ’ mho abrupt cancellation final month of a schedule port call in Hong Kong by U.S. Navy aircraft carrier John C Stennis. The Stennis, a nuclear-powered supercarrier, was scheduled to call at Hong Kong in early on May. That changed after U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Philippines Defense Minister Voltaire Gazmin visited the mailman while it was operating in the South China Sea. Speaking to the press, Carter described the visit as “ a message that the United States intends to continue to play a role in keeping peace and stability in the area. ” Beijing responded by closing Hong Kong to the Stennis and her four bodyguard ships. While China has cancelled port calls earlier, this was the first clock time it has done so as a salvo in its accelerate campaign for maritime laterality in East Asia. The Pentagon downplayed the port-call cancellation with a short statement that referred reporters to the chinese government “ for far information. ” A Defense Department official then dismissed the publish on grounds that the Stennis would have “ other opportunities to come ashore. ” That ignores China ’ s strategic message. China was rejecting not plainly a port call, but the integral military balance of world power in East Asia, where the U.S. has long served as the head defender of a stable maritime order, including full of life embark routes. In holocene years, China has used its Navy and Coast Guard to challenge Japan and the Philippines over quarrel islands, seize Scarborough Reef from the Philippines and confront Vietnam at sea over petroleum exploration. More importantly, since 2014, despite U.S. protests, China has built seven new, artificial islands in the South China Sea ’ s Spratly archipelago, installing military airfields and trench water naval ports. The new facilities greatly extend China ’ s military reach and territorial claims in an area that is a shipping line of life for Japan and South Korea—especially for oil. Left unchallenged, the taiwanese moves threaten the economic security of two highly authoritative U.S. allies.

United States warships and aircraft, in the words of Secretary of Defense Carter, have continued “ to fly, cruise and operate ” within the South China Sea. Increasingly, however, chinese naval combatants have been shadowing these U.S. operations. It ’ second time the U.S. sent Beijing a much clearer message that its rewrite of the global nautical order must stop. The Rim-of-the-Pacific ( RIMPAC ) naval use, scheduled to start adjacent month offers a premier opportunity to send that message. quite just : Cancel China ’ sulfur invitation to RIMPAC. Hosted every two years by the U.S. and held in hawaiian waters, RIMPAC is a multinational exercise, to which China has been invited since 2012, initially as an perceiver, then as a participant. By including China, the U.S. confers on Beijing ’ s nautical behavior a legitimacy it does not deserve. additionally, with RIMPAC ’ s access to Pearl Harbor, China has the chance to obtain more valuable intelligence than does the U.S. – a fact China has brazenly highlighted in the past by sending uninvited surveillance ships to spy on the two RIMPAC exercises to which it has previously been welcomed. This round, China – which has the worldly concern ’ mho largest ballistic missile program — will have the find to spy on U.S. technology and tactics for coordinating with South Korea and Japan on projectile defense. China ’ mho nautical misbehave is besides contributing to a climate of rising anti-american belligerence global. end calendar month, two russian war planes buzzed a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Baltic. This calendar month, a air force officer of Iran ’ s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened to “ submerge ” american warships should they make the “ slightest mistake ” in the Persian Gulf or Strait of Hormuz. China ’ s President Xi Jinping routinely calls for “ common obedience ” between the U.S. and China. If China is pleased to challenge the U.S. on the high seas and turn away the Stennis from Hong Kong, there should be no place for China at RIMPAC.

James E. Fanell is a government fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, a retired captain in the U.S. navy and a former director of intelligence and information operations for the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Claudia Rosett is a former Wall Street Journal editorial writer and a foreign affairs columnist for Forbes.com.