The U.S. flag flies aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, Jan. 18, 2020.
The U.S. military recently warned that the U.S. Navy will use new strategies and the right tools to respond to future violations of international law, with specific reference to the Chinese Communist government’s expansionist ambitions in the South China Sea.
In a newly released report on the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard’s joint scheduled work goals for the coming years, the Pentagon emphasized that multiple countries, particularly Russia and the Chinese Communist Party, are clearly asserting hegemony in key regions and trying to undermine the current international order, according to the Japan Times and several media reports.
The report notes that “our globally deployed navies are in daily contact with Russian and Chinese warships and aircraft,” that they are “increasingly aggressive” and that “China is the most oppressive, long-term strategic threat.
The report also states that priority should be given to competing with the Chinese Communist Party, which poses the most comprehensive threat to the United States and its allies because of its growing economic and military power, increasing aggressiveness, and attempts to dominate regional waters and forcibly construct an international order in its favor.
The size of the CCP’s navy has more than tripled in size in 20 years. To preserve global freedom and security and maintain U.S. strategic advantage, the United States plans to modernize its equipment and pursue smaller, more responsive, and even remotely controllable warships.
For Rear Adm. Jay Bynum, that means “faster response and more decisiveness.
“In the past, our behavior was to reduce the intensity of a conflict or potentially violent situation. We would turn away and reduce the risk in our contact with Communist ships,” Bynum said. Bynum said.
He noted that going forward, the U.S. Navy will change this “potentially yielding” approach, accepting tactical risk “and adopting a more assertive posture in its day-to-day operations.”
The document also notes that the U.S. Navy will also be more common in the Pacific in the future, where the U.S. will seek to conduct reconnaissance and document enemy actions that violate international law, steal other nations’ resources and trample on their sovereignty.
The Chinese Communist Party has claimed nearly all of the islands in the South China Sea, prompting protests from other neighbors such as Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei.
To counter the Chinese Communist Party, the U.S. has been sending warships to the South China Sea frequently to demonstrate the U.S. policy and position that “the vast waters of the South China Sea are high seas and therefore free to navigate.
The most recent U.S.-China naval conflict dates back to late August of this year, when the Chinese Communist Party announced that it had expelled a U.S. warship from the Xisha Islands.
The report also cites years of aggressive maritime activity by the Chinese Communist Party, including attacks on military and civilian networks, sending naval auxiliaries disguised as civilian vessels, militarizing disputed islands and reefs in the South China Sea, economically pressuring smaller countries, and establishing Communist overseas bases in strategic maritime locations.
The joint report came out on Thursday (Dec. 17) and emphasized the need for the three major U.S. naval forces to work together to prepare for a future high-end war with the Chinese Communist Party.
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