Editorial: It is Wise for American Aircraft Carriers to Stay Away from China’s Offshore Seas

The joint naval exercise between South Korea and the United States has subsided because of objections from China. It remains to be seen what will happen in the end. The Chinese people are very concerned about whether the U.S. fleets will distance themselves a little bit more from the surrounding seas.

We hope so.

We should be able to draw a line in the Yellow Sea for the Pentagon’s future exercises. For many years, U.S. military aircraft have been continuously spying around China’s offshore region. Its submarines occasionally appear in the surrounding seas, testing China’s security bottom line. China has been trying to avoid open confrontation with America in order to safeguard the overall interest of bilateral ties. America must not take it for granted, assuming that China has no security cordon and that China’s tolerance is like a spring which can be pressed time and time again.

The Yellow Sea “storm” has put Chinese people on alert. They will definitely pay more attention to their surrounding seas. It should be a basic point of China’s policy to meet the 1.3 billion Chinese people’s increasing psychological needs for safe seas. China has no intention of striving for sea power, nor is it willing to confront America. But China’s basic safety requirements are inviolable. If the U.S. military provocation arouses opposition in the Chinese people, then the U.S. can’t expect China’s cooperation.

China is not a weak country. The U.S. must not treat China as a small country. If the Pentagon wants to turn back the clock 100 years, thinking that China would tolerate and submit to whatever America does, that would be the biggest strategic ignorance of today’s American military.

In recent weeks, America has been carrying out large-scale joint drills with several countries in Hawaiian and Singaporean offshore waters. The largest U.S. submarine also appeared at three major ports in Asia-Pacific countries. It tells us that America still strongly believes in the effectiveness of gunboat policy. In fact, American strategists criticized it a long time ago. The Soviet Union’s collapse 20 years ago led to a “psychological distortion” which gives America blind confidence that its fleets can go anywhere in the world, and other countries will have to swallow their anger and will not dare to say or do anything.

America’s behavior increasingly violates the basic dignity of other countries. Currently, newly emerging countries such as Russia, Brazil and India are all strongly against America’s arrogant behavior of “freedom of navigation,” because it is self-deprecating for any big countries to allow another country to wave weapons in front of them.

As a matter of fact, it is not that newly emerging countries can’t do anything about America’s provocation. The fight between big countries does not have to be on the military level. Emerging countries are slowly setting up a new game rule: Be nice to me, and I will be nicer to you. America plays its military game too much; it will eventually cause other countries to be uncooperative in other aspects. However, America’s multi-dimensional national interest cannot be obtained just by relying on aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines. In other words, the survival of millions of Americans cannot happen just by way of gunboats.

China is not without ideas to deal with America’s offshore provocation. China’s national strength is not as strong as the U.S., but China is developing fast enough to catch up with America, and it has more ways of countering America. The U.S. will make a mistake one day if it constantly tests China.

The thing is that both America and China must not do that. Two countries — especially their fleets — should not test each other’s resilience. Therefore, China should clearly draw a safety line at sea and strive for America’s understanding and respect. The Pentagon should look at China from a changing viewpoint. These changes are facts. It is not wise to ignore or suppress them.