USS Gabrielle Giffords in the South China Sea in 2020 with the Naval Strike Missile mounted. (US Navy)
SYDNEY — China, which had seemed to have largely abandoned so-called wolf warrior diplomacy, came roaring back with a full-throated howl Monday, condemning what a military spokesman called the illegal entry of a US warship into waters China claims, calling the US “the biggest threat to peace and stability” in the South China Sea.
Australia, which had seen China slap illegal tariffs and sanctions on a number of key exports including coal, wine and lobster in retaliation to behavior the Peoples Republic of China didn’t like, has recently seen an improvement in relations, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s first ever meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing last month. Also, China released the Australian journalist Cheng Lei, who had been jailed for three years, and lifted most of the import bans on Canberra.
Some analysts said this demonstrated that China has backed away from the belligerent practice of “wolf warrior” diplomacy.
But Beijing’s reaction to passage of the USS Gabrielle Gifford near the Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands is doing nothing to help China’s relations with its Pacific neighbors, according to John Blaxland, a professor at the Australian National Univeristy based in Washington DC.
“This suggests to me that the talk of a retreat from wolf warrior diplomacy’ was more smoke and mirrors than substance,” he said in an email. “Much like the PLA-N’s use of sonar on Australian Navy divers shortly after Australia’s Prime Minister had an apparently cordial visit with President Xi, China’s actions point to a ratcheting up of pressure in support of spurious claims over the Nine-Dash Line. This comes just as countries like the Philippines, Japan, Vietnam and others push back harder.”
So far, he argued, “PRC assertiveness has been counterproductive, repelling suitors who have sought to make a partial if not a complete accommodation with China. Across Southeast Asia and beyond, there has been plenty of appetite for those accused of being ‘fence sitters’ to avoid alignment, and even to hedge or bandwagon, in some cases, with China. Xis’s action are only encouraging fence sitters to lean more to the US.”
‘Illegally Broke Into Waters’
China reacted to the Navy ship’s passage near the Spratly Island atoll by accusing the US of unlawful maritime navigation.
In a Monday statement from China’s Southern Theater Command, Air Force Col. Tian Junli said, “the USS Giffords littoral combat ship illegally broke into the waters adjacent to Ren’ai Reef in China’s Nansha Islands without the approval of the Chinese government,” according to an online translation.
He added that, “The United States has deliberately disrupted the South China Sea, seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security, severely undermined regional peace and stability, and seriously violated international law and basic norms governing international relations.
“This fully demonstrates that the United States is the biggest threat to peace and stability in the South China Sea. China has indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea Islands and adjacent waters.”
Of course, those Chinese claims to its so-called Nine-Dash Line were dismissed by a tribunal operating in accordance with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Since the ruling, sought by the Philippines, China has simply said it does not recognize the tribunal or its ruling.
Interestingly, the official English version of the statement is much less emphatic than the Chinese version, perhaps a reflection of efforts by China to downplay the incident to a foreign audience.
The day before the Chinese release, the Philippines Coast Guard issued a release saying China has taken the extraordinary step of massing 135 ships around an area key to the UNCLOS ruling. It’s an atoll where the Philppines deliberately grounded an old ship to help their claim to the area.
“Yesterday,” a statement by the Philippine Coast Guard said, “the PCG Commandant, CG Admiral Ronnie Gil L Gavan, deployed PCG vessels, BRP Sindangan and BRP Cabra, to conduct patrols in the immediate vicinity of Julian Felipe Reef. “No response was made to the radio challenges issued by the PCG to the CMM vessels which is now estimated to have grown to more than 135 vessels dispersed and scattered within Julian Felipe Reef.”
A China expert at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Malcolm David, said the Chinese reaction to the Gifford FONOP [Freedom of Navigation Operation] is “very much the type of tough talking language that is designed to intimidate, but clearly it’s not achieving that goal. The US does these FONOPs in a manner fully consistent with its obligations under UNCLOS (even though it’s not a signatory to that agreement) and international law and the Chinese constantly threaten them. I think the Chinese will continue to do this sort of provocative ‘running dog’ type rhetoric, but the real source of instability is the provocative and dangerous behaviour of PLA forces in the South China including dangerous encounters in the air, and at sea.”
The bigger issue at this point, Davis noted, is to “see if the Chinese do more dangerous actions in close proximity to US and also allied (including Australian) forces in coming days and weeks.”
It’s worth noting that Australia performed its own first joint FONOP with the Philippines with a Royal Australian Navy frigate, two Philippine Navy ships, five Philippine Air Force surveillance aircraft and a Royal Australian Air Force P-8A sub hunter aircraft in late November.