'US carrier strike force sent to intimidate China will be of no avail'

The US Navy’s deployment of an aircraft carrier to the South China Sea will exacerbate tensions between the United States and China, and lead to potentially dangerous confrontations, says Professor Dennis Etler, an American political analyst who has a decades-long interest in international affairs.

Etler, a professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Saturday, after the United States sent the USS John C. Stennis, the carrier, and several ships accompanying it into the South China Sea.

The USS John S. Stennis, two guided-missile destroyers, the USS Chung-Hoon and USS Stockdale; the guided-missile cruiser USS Mobile Bay, and the supply ship USNS Rainier had been operating in the eastern part of the South China Sea since March 1, the US Navy's Seventh Fleet said in a press release on Friday.

"Under the pretext of ‘Freedom of Navigation’ exercises the US has escalated tensions in the South China Sea by sending an aircraft carrier strike force consisting of several naval vessels into the region,” Professor Etler said.

“This has been explicitly stated by the US command as an effort to ‘confront the Chinese Navy’ by challenging it in its own backyard. In other words the US is employing the colonialist strategies of ‘gunboat diplomacy’ and ‘divide and conquer’ in order to thwart China's rise as a maritime power and maintain US hegemonic control of global sea lanes and traffic. This can only be seen as a threat to China's vital national interests by any objective observer,” he added.

US claim against China not based on facts

“Prior to the US announcement of new naval maneuvers in the South China Sea, Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, spoke at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC, during which time he outlined China's principled stand on the issue of the status of the South China Sea. He made it clear that China is responding to the actions of other countries in the region who started land reclamation much earlier than China did, and are continuing their reclamation activities even today, a fact hardly covered by US news media,” Professor Etler said.

“In addition the islands and reefs occupied by some of China’s neighbors are highly militarized with artillery, amphibious tanks, missiles and gun helicopters in addition to airstrips. The US claim that China is militarizing the region is thus not based on facts, but is a premeditated ploy to justify its own interventionist activities,” he said.

“Wang also noted that China has consistently advocated for bilateral negotiations between nations with contending claims in the South China Sea. In this regard Wang noted that when China signed the United Nations Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 10 years ago, it also signed Article 298, a provision which allows nations, without prejudice, to not accept mandatory arbitration, a declaration that was also made by some 30 other signatory nations including Britain, France and Russia,” he stated.

“The US, of course, has not yet ratified the UNCLOS even to this day. In addition the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea signed by the Philippines, China and several other nations requires countries directly involved to solve their disputes through negotiations. The Philippine's insistence, instigated by the US, to move forward with legal actions against China's position by international arbitration, has no merit or legal standing, something which the US is well aware of.”

China's assertion of its sovereign rights

Professor Etler said “China's assertion of its sovereign rights in the South China Sea are nothing new and can be traced backed to the late 1800s when European colonialists were contending for power and influence in the region.

“In the 1930s, over Chinese objections, France seized both the Xisha (Paracel) and Nansha (Spratley) Islands and declared them part of French Indochina.

“In the late 1930s Japan annexed the islands and placed them under the jurisdiction of Taiwan which was then under its rule.

“In 1945, in accordance with the Cairo and Potsdam Declarations and with American help, the armed forces of the Republic of China government in Nanjing accepted the surrender of the Japanese garrisons in Taiwan, including the Paracel and Spratly Islands. Nanjing then declared both archipelagos to be part of Guangdong Province.

“These are historic facts, even acknowledged by unbiased US diplomats such as retired US Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr. As such there is no basis for challenging China's sovereign rights in the South China Sea.

“It is the US and its allies in the region, primarily the Philippines who are the revisionists who wish to strip away China's sovereignty. China has the right to protect its territorial integrity in the face of US provocations, and all the foot stomping and bombast of the US will not change that reality. US actions will only exacerbate tensions between it and China and lead to potentially dangerous confrontations between the two nations’ naval forces.”

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