Ever since China claimed sovereignty over the entire South China Sea and began constructing military facilities on some islands and reefs in the region, the US has conducted a series of freedom of navigation operations by having its warships pass through the waters.
On Thursday, the destroyer USS John S. McCain sailed as close as 6 nautical miles (11km) of Mischief Reef (Meiji Reef, 美濟礁) as part of another naval operation, a passage that took about six hours from start to finish.
Intriguingly, a US official told Agence France-Presse that a Chinese warship had sent at least 10 radio warnings to the US destroyer, calling on the vessel to “please turn around. You are in our waters.”
The US warship responded by saying that “we are a US [ship] conducting routine operations in international waters.”
Neither China nor the US is small or weak. This means it is a matter of significance when either one issues at least 10 warnings to a vessel from the other side, saying that it is in its territorial waters.
Why did the matter come to such a quick end after the US vessel replied that it was conducting routine operations in international waters?
It seems as if the two sides were talking without communicating and it is interesting to see how they had their own interpretations of what was happening.
The day after the incident, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Geng Shuang (耿爽) said that “the Chinese armed forces immediately sent naval ships to identify and verify the US warship according to law and warn it to leave.”
So Beijing not only sent vessels to identify and verify the US warship as required by its laws, but it also warned the US vessel to leave the area.
The bravery of the way the Chinese fought to safeguard their sovereignty reminds of Ah Q (阿Q), a character created by Chinese writer Lu Xun (魯迅) in his 1921 book The True Story of Ah Q.
Whenever Ah Q lost a fight or was beaten up, he told himself that “it was like a son beating up his own father, completely unreasonable,” in an attempt to comfort himself and convince himself that he had won a moral victory.
Either that is what happened on Thursday, or the incident must have left the US extremely embarrassed.
However, there is something odd about the whole situation: How did the Chinese vessels go about identifying and verifying the US warship, and how did they warn it and expel it from the area?
It would have been interesting to hear how they did these things. After all, China is claiming sovereignty over the entire South China Sea: How could it possibly tolerate US warships entering and leaving its territorial waters repeatedly to carry out freedom of navigation operations?
Chang Kuo-tsai is a retired associate professor at National Hsinchu University of Education and a former deputy secretary-general of the Taiwan Association of University Professors.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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