The harassment of the USNS Impeccable by five small Chinese vessels in March supposedly resulted from different interpretations of international law. But more fundamentally it underscored the continued tension over Taiwan and the lack of transparency and trust in US-China relations. In subsequent Congressional hearings, US National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair told Congress that “preparations for a Taiwan conflict” still drive the modernization goals of the Chinese military and that the recent naval incident was part of a plan by Beijing to expand its influence.
Given the uncertainty regarding intent, such incidents are likely to increase in frequency and intensity if the two rivals can not develop a modus operandi to deal with their differences.
China and the US made an agreement in 1998 regarding military consultations for the very purpose of avoiding such misunderstandings and confrontations. However China froze such exchanges last October in retaliation for a US$6.5 billion weapons sale by Washington to Taiwan. Even though talks resumed in February, the Chinese side was quoted as saying: “Contacts will remain tenuous unless the US removes remaining obstacles to improvement.”
Adding to the tension in US-China relations, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) recently urged the US “not to hesitate” on sensitive arms sale to Taiwan.
“We need high-performance jet fighters to replace our aging F-5s and other unsophisticated arms,” he said.
He was referring to Taipei’s repeated requests for F-16C/Ds from Washington, which has been dragging its feet because of pressure from China.
In the Impeccable incident, according to the Pentagon, “five Chinese vessels shadowed and aggressively maneuvered in dangerously close proximity to USNS Impeccable, in apparent co-ordinated effort to harass the US ocean surveillance ship while it was conducting routine operations in international waters.”
Pentagon spokesman Stewart Upton said “Chinese ships and aircraft routinely steam or fly near US navy ships in this area. However these actions [regarding the Impeccable] were considerably more aggressive and unprofessional than we have seen, and greatly increased the risk of collision or miscalculation.”
The mission of the Impeccable is to use both passive and active low frequency sonar arrays to enable detection and tracking of long range undersea threats including submarines. China argues that the collection of such data is a “hostile act” and a “preparation of the battle field” and thus a threat to use force — a violation of the UN Charter and certainly not a peaceful use of the ocean. The US argues that its data gathering is purely defensive and that such “spying” is not a threat to use force.
Each has legal arguments to back up its position. But the confrontation in waters 120km south of Hainan was not really about the finer points of international law. Rather it was about mutual distrust stemming from China’s military expansion and aggressive US actions to monitor this growing Chinese “threat” so that it can be neutralized if needs be.
Beijing’s main military concern is Taiwan’s relationship with China. The problem is that the US supports Taiwan’s defense with arms sales. Adding fuel to the fire, some Taiwanese strongly advocate open independence, and at times China has threatened Taiwan with violence. But relations have improved since the election last year of Ma as president, who rejects any notion of declaring independence.
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