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By APD Writer Ling Xiaoyun
(Translated by Deng Xianlai)
The U.S. Pacific Fleet said on its website that its guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain collided with a merchant vessel off the east coast of Singapore near the Malacca Strait on Aug. 21 at 6:24 a.m. Japan Standard Time (2124 GMT Aug. 20).
The New York Times cited the U.S. Navy as saying that the McCain was damaged near the rear on its port, or left-hand, side after colliding with the Alnic MC, a 600-foot vessel that transports oil and chemicals.
Rescue missions were under way as 10 sailors on the destroyer were unaccounted for and five others were injured.
Prior to this latest incident, another U.S. destroyer, USS Fitzgerald, collided with a large Philippine container ship in waters off Japan on June 17, leaving seven sailors dead and three others injured and causing extensive damage to the warship.
In recent years, the United States, under the pretext of preserving freedom of navigation and maintaining regional order, has repeatedly flexed its military muscles by sending warships to the South China Sea for so-called freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs).
As a result, however, U.S. warships have frequently collided with civilian vessels during these operations, and thus have severely disrupted the orderly passage of ships.
That begs the question: Are the U.S. warships safeguarding the “freedom of navigation” or rather its “arbitrariness of navigation” in the South China Sea? Are they maintaining regional order or rather disrupting it?
Wilful U.S. missile-guided destroyers
Possessing such advantages as heavy firepower and high flexibility, missile-guided destroyers are the most widely used type of vessels in modern naval fleets.
The ships can be applied to a broad range of combat missions including assaulting submarines and surface ships, providing air-defense for fleets, and conducting escort, reconnaissance and patrol tasks. They can also fire torpedoes and attack land-based targets as well.
The flexible nature of missile-guided destroyers enables them to easily adapt to the complicated terrain of the South China Sea, thus making them Washington’s preferred instruments in carrying out the so-called “FONOPs.”
The fifth Arleigh Burke-class destroyer in the U.S. Navy, the USS John S. McCain, is part of the Destroyer Squadron 15 of Carrier Strike Group 5 of the Seventh Fleet.
The Seventh Fleet sailed to the Taiwan Strait on June 27, 1950, in violation of Chinese territorial sovereignty and subsequently participated in all major operations in the Korean and Vietnamese wars.
Boasting superior combat capabilities, the McCain has repeatedly sailed to the Western Pacific over the recent years.
On Aug. 10, the destroyer reached within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef, which is part of Chinese territory in the Nansha Islands, and sailed for about six hours until being warned off by Chinese missile frigates Huaibei and Fushun.
British newspaper The Guardian said the McCain’s sailing within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef was the third “FONOP” since U.S. President Donald Trump assumed office. The two previous ones were carried out by USS Dewey on May 25 near Mischief Reef and by USS Stethem on July 2 near Triton Island in the Xisha Islands.
What makes the McCain incident different is that the site of its collision is a very busy and highly sensitive area -- the Malacca Strait.
As the main shipping channel between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, the Malacca Strait, 1,080 km in length, sees more than 50,000 cargo ships, oil tankers and other vessels passing through it every year. Statistics show more than a quarter of the world’s oil shipments travels through the strait.
Should U.S. warships continue to sail arbitrarily and conduct “FONOPs” frequently in the busy waters, more collisions with merchant ships would be unavoidable. In the end, it was those merchant ships from all over the world whose freedom of navigation would be restrained. How ironic would that be!
Lift a rock only to drop it on America’s own feet
The origin of “FONOPs” can be traced back to an announcement by then U.S. President Jimmy Carter in 1979. Carter said that in consideration of the U.S. prominent status in world affairs, it had to take active measures to defend its rights from being illegally eroded by other coastal countries.
Obviously, the so-called prominent status refers to nothing but the U.S. maritime military preponderance, and "to defend its rights" also reaffirms that the “FONOPs” are carried out to ensure the country’s own interests.
In fact, the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea has never been a problem. Furthermore, the framework of the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, which was approved by foreign ministers of China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states on Aug. 6 in Manila, the Philippines, has de-escalated tensions in the region and brought the South China Sea on track of becoming a sea of peace and prosperity.
As an outside party of the South China Sea issue, the United States has been constantly inciting instability in the region.
The fact that the Trump administration has conducted three “FONOPs” in the South China Sea -- all in violation of China’s maritime sovereignty -- in less than three months is indicative of its unwillingness to relinquish the U.S. global hegemony, pull back in the Asia-Pacific, or abandon America’s strategic containment of China.
Washington’s real purpose behind the “FONOPs” is to maximize its strategic and geopolitical interests and sway public opinion.
In the near future, the United States is likely to continue with its arbitrary behavior and carry out more “FONOPs” in the South China Sea. However, such unjustified and unpopular actions will ultimately backfire. As a Chinese saying goes, it will lift a rock only to drop it on its own feet.
In addition, with U.S. warships doomed to collide with more foreign merchant vessels during “FONOPs,” more countries would become dissatisfied and eventually get a better read of America’s hypocrisy and true intentions.
Ling Xiaoyun, international strategies and defense issues Research Fellow at APD institute,
researcher at the International Business School of Yunan University of Finance and Economics. He is a PhD in international relations and a postdoctoral scholar on military strategy.
APD Review columnists are senior media workers and international issues experts with rich experience in international reporting.They comment on current international affairs from unique perspectives in accordance with the Asia-Pacific Daily’s notion of originality, exclusiveness, profundity, openness and interconnection.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
