The South China Sea is very valuable real estate. About a third of the world’s seaborne trade passes through there, and it’s rich in resources, including oil and fisheries.
It’s also of great strategic importance; if China could control it, and keep other nations out, Southeast Asia and Taiwan would be undefendable (see map here).
China claims ownership of the South China Sea, but to the rest of the world, it’s international waters. The U.S. Navy regularly conducts “freedom of navigation” patrols there to emphasize that. These patrols irritate China, but they don’t do much about them — yet.
Meanwhile, China has converted several reefs into military bases with airfields — i.e., “unsinkable aircraft carriers” — to assert military control over the South China Sea. These bases irritate Western nations and their regional allies, but they haven’t done much about them, although they’d obviously be targets in a war.
But China’s main weapon for taking over the South China Sea is a massive flotilla of small military vessels disguised as fishing boats. Principally, they play a squatter role — by moving into a lagoon or island chain, and sitting there, they effectively occupy the place. But they can also hinder shipping and countries’ naval vessels by crowding the sea with hundreds of small vessels used as obstacles to movement.
Basically, whether squatting or used as a blocking force, they utilize a swarming strategy. The Philippines has two medium-sized warships (and a handful of smaller ones); recently, China deployed 220 militia vessels to squat for several weeks in an island chain it’s trying to wrest away from that nation.
With a defense budget one-tenth of America’s, China can’t compete with the U.S. Navy in big hardware. The brilliance of its strategy is those vessels are small and cheap, and manned by small crews, so they can be deployed in large numbers at small expense. By posing as civilian vessels, they enjoy a sort of immunity from military engagement, and can deny having a military purpose. And they’re expendable.
These boats are part of China’s military, are manned by military-trained crews, operate under China’s military command structure, have national-purpose missions, and work hand-in-glove with China’s surface navy, submarines, air forces, and army. They are military, military, military.
Most Americans don’t know they exist. It’s time they did. Until now, there’s been little publicity about them in the mainstream media. CNN‘s article published on Monday, April 12, 2021 (read it here) is a step toward educating the American public about how China is scheming to take over a big patch of ocean.
Photo: These are military vessels, not fishing boats. Their mission is expropriating territory belonging to other nations.
There is a solution. You declare the crews of the small ships pirates. Take four or five and imprison the crews, and hang them. Of course one could offer China a real war. [This comment has been edited.]
That’s one way to start a real war.