Just when you thought things with China couldn’t get worse, 58-year-old Secretary of State Tony Blinken picked an old fight with China over the South China Sea, where the Trump administration accused China interfering with freedom of navigation. When the Hague Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled July 12, 2016 against China in its naval dispute with the Philippines, China rejected the ruling that stipulated that the South China Sea was international waters, not part of China. China decided to build military installations in the Spratly Islands with it shallow coral reefs and sandbars in the South China Sean. Trump administration officials rejected China’s claim of the South China Sea as territorial waters, backing the Philippine’s lawsuit at the Hague. As soon as the Hague made the ruing China rejected it, claiming it had every right for defensive purposes to stake claim to the waterways.
Blinken and 44-year-old National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan had their run in with China at a get-to-know-you summit March 18 in Anchorage, Alsaska. Blinken and Sullivan accused Beijing of genocide on Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang province in Western China, crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong and interference with Taiwan’s sovereignty. If that weren’t bad enough, Blinken brought up U.S. opposition to China’s claims in the South China Sea. “No where is the rules-based maritime order under greater threat than in the South China Sea,” Blinken said, infuriating Beijing. Blinken continued the Trump policy pushed by 57-year-old former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to guaranteeing U.S. navy access in international waters through the South China Sea. Blinken said China continues to coerce and intimidate its Southeast Asian neighbors.
At a commemoration July 1 of 100-years of the Chinese Communist Party July 1, Xi said that “bullies,” referring to the United States, will “have their heads bashed bloody,” if they mess with China’s sovereignty. Xi has made clear that he doesn’t accept the Hague ruling nor does he accept threats by the U.S. about running warships through the South China Sea where some $5 trillion worth of commerce passes through. “The United States reaffirms its July 12, 2020 policy regarding maritime claims in the South China Sea,” Blinken said, repeating Pompeo’s statement last year. “We also reaffirm that an armed attack on the Philippines armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft in the South China Sea would invoke U.S. mutual defense commitments,” Blinken said. Blinken took Pompeo’s statements one-step further, saying the U.S. would abide by Article IV of the 1951 Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty.
Blinken’s statement raises the stakes with China, for the first time saying the U.S. would defend the Philippines from any Chinese attack. Talking about the 1951 mutual defense treaty, Blinken has put China on notice not to mess with the Philippines or face the U.S. military. While Blinken talks tough, most people recall what happened April 1, 2001, early on in the presidency of George W. Bush. China intercepted a U.S. EP-3E Aires II Surveillance plane over the South China Sea, forcing it down on Hainan Island. Twenty-four U.S. crew, including three women, were detained for 10 days, returning the EP-3E AIRES II 30 days later completely dismantled. So When Blinker talks about a military confrontation with China, he’d better know what he’s talking about. Not since the 1950-1953 Korean War has the U.S. seen conflict with Communist China. Blinken certainly doesn’t want to test the waters.
Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Malyasia and Vietnam all oppose China building out military installations in the neutral South China Sea. “We call on [China] to abide by its obligations under international law, cease its provocative behavior, and take steps to reassure the international community that it is committed to the rules-based maritime order that respects the right of all countries, big and small,” Blinken said in a statement. When you take Blinken’s words with his March 18 Anchorage summit, it spells trouble moving forward. Only yesterday, Chinese President Xi Jinping extended the mutual friendship treaty with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, essentially give the rogue state the green light to continue building nuclear weapons and Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles [ICBMs], now threatening the U.S. homeland. Biden’s approach to both Russia and China has been to provoke both regimes.
Unless the Biden administration wants to get the U.S. into WW III, they need to tone down the belligerent rhetoric, not publicly commenting on what the U.S. would or would not to in the event of a skirmish in the Philippines. Telegraphing what the U.S. would or wouldn’t do it a bad idea in the present circumstances. China has already threatened to retaliate against U.S. companies doing business with China, after the Biden administration announced more sanctions July 10 against Chinese companies. Whatever happens with Uyghurs in Western China, pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong or in Taiiwan, it’s not worth starting WW III. It doesn’t intimidate Beijing when Blinken announces the U.S. would defend the Philippines. Biden’s foreign policy has driven U.S. adversaries, including China, Russia and North Korea into a mutual defense alliance, ratcheting up global tensions.
