Resolving Sino-U.S Naval Military Issues

The Sino-U.S. Naval Military Security Consultative Mechanism Special Conference was held in Beijing from August 26-27. China pointed out that there is a safety concern resulting from the U.S.’s frequent maritime surveillance and reconnaissance activities in China’s exclusive economic zones, and that the only way in which this issue can be resolved is for the U.S. to reduce or put a halt to the activities of their naval reconnaissance in these areas. The U.S. indicated that they would like to use the Sino-U.S. Naval Military Security Consultative Mechanism as the principal tool to continue to discuss effective methods to resolve Sino-U.S. naval military issues. Both sides also agreed to use the mechanism as a means to conduct discussions and to incrementally resolve uncertainties. Today, China Central Television requested the expertise of specialists in Sino-U.S. naval military topics to help decipher what had taken place.

Why does the U.S. want to conduct naval and air reconnaissance activities in exclusive Chinese economic zones. How is it that they hope to benefit?

In response to this, Xu Guanyu, who is a well-known military expert and retired general from the People’s Liberation Army, stated: “I believe that there are two aspects to resolving this issue. First of all, and very regrettably, Americans have a habit of practicing hegemony. Everyone knows Americans often say that the ocean belongs to the U.S., and so, they have a deeply rooted idea in their minds that, by the might of their nation, they will go where they want to go and they can do what they want to do. So this is the habit of practicing hegemony, and I believe that it is by no means a good habit for them to have. This is also a very important reason – they believe that whenever they feel like conducting exercises in China’s South Sea, that that is exactly what they will do. They will not consider other factors. When I am not in your 12 territorial waters, I can act freely. Since the law governing international waters is a little bit ambiguous on the issue of exclusive economic zones, Americans often use this as a pretext to do things that they ought not do.”

“The second problem, and a very important factor in the equation is that deeply in their psyche they have the point of view that China is an adversary. So even though at times they don’t say it with their mouths, [but rather] say that China is not the enemy. The truth of the matter is that within the military there is a group of people who have this way of thinking. So, as soon as they see the way in which China has abruptly risen and grown strong, they will thereupon assume there is a Chinese threat, saying the Chinese military is not transparent, their military spending has expanded too rapidly, their naval strength has grown too fast and so on. And these types of reasons are behind their desire to conduct reconnaissance operations to gain a understanding of what is going on with the Chinese military, especially naval and air. So it is because of these two reasons that the U.S. does not consider the way that China feels on the issue and is not concerned that China’s interests have been encroached upon when they do these things,” he said.

Host: What kind of role will the Sino-U.S. Naval Military Security Consultative Mechanism play in the reduction or suspension of U.S. reconnaissance in our exclusive economic zones?

　　

In response, Xu Guanyu said: “I think that China’s position at this current consultation was fair and reasonable. I think that the U.S. should not be willing to take a big loss over such a small issue. What do I mean by this? Just that, it is not worth the effort to conduct naval and air reconnaissance – sonar or wireless reconnaissance – to get close to China’s territorial waters, and extremely close to China’s exclusive economic zones and operate in this airspace and these waters. After President Obama took office he expressed very clearly that he believes that at this time Sino-U.S. relations are the most important bilateral relations in the world. Since this is the case, more should be done to improve the relationship between China and the U.S.. And so, because of this surveillance reconnaissance activity, this naval military safety consultation was conducted in hopes of resolving this problem. Since the Americans showed up, it is testament to the fact that both sides have the desire to resolve the problems. I think this is a good thing – a good start. We start from a concrete position and establish a military mutual trust mechanism. There are many situations ascribed to the military mutual trust mechanism. We have done many things on both the Chinese and American sides; for instance, setting up a hot line, holding upper level visitations and interchange, etc. Also there have been many common simulation exercises (rescue simulation). Why not do more? So in my opinion, this meeting marks a very good start, a concrete beginning, to push forward the Sino-U.S. military mutual trust mechanism and improve Sino-U.S. relations.”