Need to counterbalance China's bullying role in South China Sea, say US generals

Expressing concern over growing Chinese military power and its assertiveness, two top retired American generals stressed on the lawmakers the need to develop a strategy to counter-balance Chinese bullying role in South China Sea and the region. [caption id=“attachment_1684145” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  South China Sea. GettyImages[/caption] “While our efforts in the Pacific to keep positive relations with China are well and good, these efforts must be paralleled by a policy to build the counterbalance if China continues to expand its bullying role in the South China Sea and elsewhere,” Gen (rtd) James N Mattis, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday during a hearing chaired by Senator John McCain. “That counterbalance must deny China veto power over territorial, security, and economic conditions in the Pacific, building support for our diplomatic efforts to maintain stability and economic prosperity so critical to our economy,” Mattis said in response to a question. Testifying before the power Senate committee, General (rtd) John M Keane said China’s continuing economic growth has fuelled a major conventional buildup that is beginning to shift the local balance of power in its favour. “As a result, Beijing has been emboldened to act more assertively toward its neighbours, especially in expanding its territorial claims which include not only Taiwan but also most of the South China Sea islands and Japan’s Senkaku islands,” he said. “China has embarked on a strategy of regional domination at the expense of US interests as a Pacific nation and decades of partnership with allied countries in the region,” Keane said. As such Gen Keane called for developing a regional strategy with US allies to counter China’s desire for dominant control and influence. “Recognise that China’s military strategy to defeat US reliance on military information networks which they believe alone may defeat the United States militarily and their exploding precision strike capability threatens ground and naval forces, forward staging bases and air and seaports of debarkation,” he said. The United States, he noted, no longer enjoys the commanding position in the precision strike regime that it occupied in the two decades following the Cold War. “We should stress test US regional military defence to counter China’s threat and recognise that a change in regional defence strategy and capabilities is likely,” Keane said. Admiral (rtd) William Fallon, former commander of the US Central Command, said one of the most important strategic interests with huge implications for national security and the stability of the vast Asia-Pacific region is America’s long-term relationship with China. “Mutually beneficial in many respects, it has other dimensions, notably in the areas of cybersecurity, military expansion and regional disputes with neighbouring countries which are a cause for concern and need to be addressed,” he said. PTI