(07-14-2020 11:15 AM)BobcatEngineer Wrote: Quote:The United States and the world "will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday, prompting China to hit back, reflecting a ratcheting up of tensions between the two powers amid deteriorating relations.
"We are making clear: Beijing's claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, as is its campaign of bullying to control them," Pompeo said in a statement, referring to the contentious and potentially energy-rich stretch of water.
The U.S. has long opposed China's expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea, regularly sending Navy patrols through the strategic waterways to demonstrate freedom of navigation there. Most recently, on July 4, two U.S. aircraft carriers carried out operations in the area as the Chinese military conducted drills nearby.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/u-s-s...a-n1233745
"Regularly sending Navy patrols ... to demonstrate freedom of navigation," won't get it done. We need to form a NATO-like alliance with Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, India, and Australia. We can bribe that alliance up by promising to help them stand off the bullying of the Chinese and by offering them a bunch of cheap consumer goods manufacturing that we move out of China.
We need to deploy a carrier battle group (CVBG) and an amphibious ready group (ARG) to the area on a full-time basis. Let them conduct regular joint/combined operations with alliance partners. Let them make regular port visits to Subic, Sepanggar, Jakarta, Singapore, Cam Ranh Bay, Perth, Mumbai, Kolkatta, Kaohsiung, and others. Tell China very directly, "We're not shooting at you--yet--but we're in your face and we're not going away."
To do this, we need to GTFO of the Mideast. That puts pressure on China because we don't need that oil, but China does. And until somebody figures out how to build a pipeline over the Himalayas, that oil has to come by sea. If they have to think about convoying tankers through the Straits of Horamuz, around India, and through the Straits of Malacca, that means they need a blue water navy, and not the force to intimidate their neighbors that PLAN is currently building.
Truman bribed up an alliance to beat the Soviets. Reagan put pressure on their economy to collapse them without firing a shot. It's a simple but brilliant game plan, and it can work again. But we have to get high behind doing it.