US Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Locklear on Thursday said he did not believe the ongoing dispute over the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) would deteriorate into a military conflict.
Addressing the Asia Society in Washington, Locklear stressed the importance of “getting through” problems in the East China Sea and the South China Sea “without bringing war ships and war planes” into the arena.
“Difficulties need to be sorted out,” he said, adding it was imperative to avoid miscalculation.
The problems were not going to “go away” he said and military conflict in the region would be “too disruptive to the global security environment.”
He said the gains of a military conflict would not be worth the losses.
“What concerns me about the South China Sea is the potential for a miscalculation at a low level, where it is not coordinated between governments and military leadership,” he said.
Miscalculation could “just kind of happen” and then escalate, he added.
“If the nations involved are thoughtful about this we can avoid that, but the possibility for miscalculation will not go away,” Locklear said.
The admiral refused to comment or give his views on the potential sale of F-16C/D aircraft to Taiwan, saying that he would leave that issue to others. In the case of the Dioayutais, known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan, he had not seen the need to think about the possibility of military escalation.
“The global media interprets things and tries to see things that sometimes aren’t there,” he said.
Now that China has been invited to join the RIMPAC exercise in 2014, Locklear was asked if Taiwan might also be invited to join. He chose to duck the question and said he would leave it for diplomats and the US Department of State to answer.
At a Pentagon news conference earlier in the day, the admiral said that with regard to territorial disputes in the region, all parties “including the Chinese” should avoid conflict and miscalculation.
“It’s important as we go forward to ensure that all parties remain calm about these things and that we don’t unnecessarily introduce warfighting apparatus into these decisions or into these discussions,” he said.
Locklear praised the current state of the military-to-military relationship between the US and China.
“We have a growing ability to have a dialogue at the military level that’s frank and open,” he said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
RSS