" A top United States military commander said Saturday that the U.S. Army is working on starting a formal dialogue and exchange program with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army before the end of the year.
...In recent years, American officials have said that ties between the U.S. and Chinese militaries are weak and far below the level of similar ties between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War. This has led to heightened anxieties among U.S. military leaders.
...The U.S. has said it does not take sides in the [territorial] disputes [between China and her neighbors], but wants to maintain freedom of navigation in the region and, more recently, has insisted that China clarify or adjust its claims in the South China Sea to ensure they are consistent with international law.
...China alarmed Japan, South Korea and the U.S. in late 2013 when it declared an Air Defense Identification Zone, or ADIZ, over a significant part of the East China Sea, requiring all aircraft entering the zone to provide identification and flight plans. American officials have continued to order U.S. military aircraft to fly through the area without acknowledging China’s new designation."
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I foresee a multi-polar world in which China will be the hall monitor of the Far East. As things are shaking out, they will rightly share in the patrolling of sea lanes in the South China Sea.
15 comments:
In recent years, American officials have said that ties between the militaries are weak and far below the level of ties between the United States and the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War.
I've known about this for a while because one of my clients is a think tank that specializes in Chinese Foreign Policy. From what they've told me the PLA has gone to ground, and talks to no one, at times not even the Politiburo, and certainly not any foreign military. As the article mentions the US had more liaison officers with the Red Army during the height of the Cold War than we do with the PLA now.
I don't think China will be seen as a hallway monitor in its Pacific neighborhood in our lifetimes. Absolutely none of its neighbors trust it as an honest broker, which they do for the US. To use your high school analogy, deborah, its neighbors see China as the bully who pushes you up against the locker & steals your lunch money.
This is the beginning of a new, or perhaps escalated, cold war between China and the US. The Chinese Navy has been rapidly expanding, while the US Navy has been contracting. All of this is so China can one day take full possession and control of Hong Kong as more than the Special Administrative Region Hong Kong now is.
China never declared that its war with Japan ended, by the way.
The US needs to take a lesson from Boyd Crowder.
Think of the Chinese as the Crowes and you got it figured out.
YH:
"I don't think China will be seen as a hallway monitor in its Pacific neighborhood in our lifetimes. Absolutely none of its neighbors trust it as an honest broker, which they do for the US."
And rightly so, but they mirror what we were in the 20th century. It's more of a might makes right situation that I see as eventually resolving into a coherent Asian bloc.
NR:
"China never declared that its war with Japan ended, by the way."
Do you mean the one where Japan invaded China in the 1930s?
It will be over when they say it's over. Just like Wisconsin commies.
The world according to Boyd Crowder!
(Saaayy, come to think about it, he'd be a HELLUVA lot more effective Sec of State than Kerry, lol)
We should've made the Phillippines the 51st or 58th state when we had the chance.
they will rightly share in the patrolling of sea lanes in the South China Sea
But what if they've got their eyes on more than the South China Sea?
"One year ago, [China] surpassed the US as the world's largest trading nation, and 90 percent of Chinese exports are shipped by sea. At the same time, the rapidly growing country has been racing to establish its naval presence, just as the German Empire did over 100 years ago. Yet it bothers Beijing's military leaders that Chinese access to the Pacific is blocked by a chain of islands and peninsulas that are controlled by American allies."
If the USA had added the Phillippines as either the 51st or 58th state China wouldn't be blocked in the Pacific, it would be checkmated. Not only that, our elites, bless their hearts, could've imported Phillipina maids and Phillipino gardeners to their hearts content and slammed the door on the Mestizo invasion, A win win!
Deborah said ...
... eventually resolving into a coherent Asian block.
My experience of having lived in Asia for a while is that this "coherant...block" thing will never happen. Westerners are still willfully uninformed about East Asian cultures and political dynamics. Even though predicted by George Orwell, there is just too much historical animosity for sundry Asian nations to trust each other. Not to mention the fact that radical Islamic Jihad is rife in Asia right now. Ordinarily China is satisfied with suzerainty from nations on its borders. For the foreseeable future, they will have their hands ful maintianing that. When the powers that be in Beijing start thinking the borders are trans-pacific is where a problem may lie.
Lydia, my point was that China wants to be the hegemon. Having a right to sea lanes is extremely important to them, as they are landlocked the rest of the way.
Great points, Ari. I recall a saying, something like, 'the Japanese hate the Chinese, the Chinese hate the Koreans, and the Koreans hate everyone.' Maybe I am too optimistic, considering the past. But I'm guessing they'll have to get along on some level.
Yes, the radical Islam situation plagues China, Iran, Russia, etc. That's another reason I predict eventual Iranian ascendancy in the ME.
The Chinese have not forgotten WW II and the Sino-Japanese war of 1937-1941. The Worst Holocaust in the WWII was committed by the Japanese in China. The atrocities were in the millions.
We (the USA) rarely think about it, because it was just yellow people.
And as for the Koreans. If you've ever talked with an Irishman about Cromwell, multiply that by 10, and that's how the Koreans feel about China AND Japan.
rc:
"We (the USA) rarely think about it, because it was just yellow people."
Rather it's because we are bad at history. I don't like blanket statements about what 'we' think about Asians.
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