Expert: US may be ready to wage war to ensure freedom of navigation in SCS
AN international law professor reminded China on Wednesday that the US may be ready to wage war if Beijing shuts down the South China Sea (SCS) in pursuit of its expansive maritime territorial claims.
Dr. James Kraska, chair and Charles H. Stockton professor of international law of the Stockton Center for Internal Law at the US Naval War College, said that the US separately waged wars with the United Kingdom and France centuries ago and fought two other major wars in pursuit of freedom of navigation.
China should take these historical acts to exercise caution, he warned. Kraska, also a lecturer at the Harvard Law School, emphasized the need for international waters to
remain open and free to navigation and overflight, such as the SCS, which the US and other countries treats with commercial and military importance. Keeping SCS free, he added, is also necessary to strengthen international law.
While noting that Beijing began to challenge the US military’s freedom of navigation and overflight (FONOP) in the regional waters in the early 1990s as a result of its excessive claims, the US military has, however, been unrelenting by conducting regular patrols, dismissing Beijing’s expansive territorial narrative.
Under the administration of President Donald Trump, US patrols and its other military-related activities in the SCS have been intensified, delivering America’s clear message that Beijing must not impede passage and other sea and air movements in the international water.
The US military has carried out at least 22 FONOPS in the SCS, all directed at challenging China’s claims, and just recently, it sent its two Nimitz-class aircraft carriers in the regional waters in what was seen as a massive show of naval force.
Kraska told the Stratbase Albert del Rosario Institute’s virtual roundtable forum on Tuesday that the two carrier strike groups carried out not just ordinary maneuvers, but for the first time, anti-air warfare training and long range bombing exercises.
He said that other countries, including Japan, Australia and now India, are working with the US and are stepping up militarily to balance China’s military rise in the region.
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana joined the international community’s call for China to observe rules-based order in the SCS, specifically by adhering to the July 2016 order of the UN Arbitral Tribunal that junked its claims.
“We urge China to comply with the Permanent Court of Arbitration [PCA] ruling, and abide by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea [UNCLOS] to which it is a signatory,” Lorenzana said in a news statement.
“It is in the best interest of regional stability that China heed the call of the community of nations to follow international law and honor existing international agreements,” he added.
The defense chief said the country will continue pushing for the finalization of a substantive Code of Conduct in the SCS “to settle disputes and prevent the escalation of tensions in the region.”