Naval War in South China Sea

War is being waged in the South China Sea, as Communist China has made aggressive moves in recent months to grab the disputed Paracel and Spratley Islands. In fact, China has laid claim to the entire South China Sea, stepping on the toes of all it's neighbors. China released an edict in November of 2013 stating that a new East China Sea Air and Sea Identification Zone was being enacted and required any aircraft flying through previously international airspace over international waters to presubmit flight plans to the Chinese ministry of foreign affairs and abide by other new restrictions. As is their policy, China steamrolled it's neighbors.

Paracel Islands

In 1974, as Vietnam was being taken over by communist North Vietnam, China sent a flotilla from their South Seas Fleet to sieze the Paracel Islands. A Vietnamese frigate was sunk and another was damaged. Several Vietnamese sailors were killed. Again in 1988, Chinese Naval forces met and sunk a Vietnamese warship and damaging a second ship.

On May 1 of this year, Vietnamese protests spilled into the streets of the capital Hanoi amid reports that China had moved a state-run drilling rig into the Paracel area. Outraged, Vietnamese loyalists burned and looted local Chinese factories and businesses, forcing Chinese nationals to flee for their lives.

Pictured at left: Chinese Coast guard. Above: Vietnamese fishermen are run off of water they've fished for generations.






Spratly Island Chain

The Spratly Island group is another example of Chinese aggression, where this disputed chain is claimed by Phillipines. They've lodged a complaint as has Vietnam with regards to China's aggressive actions. Pictured below, Chinese and Vietnamese fishing boats wage battles at sea, occasionally ending up with a Vietnamese boat being damaged (a Vietnamese fisherman makes repairs from a collision with a Chinese fishing boat).




Last year the Chinese propaganda outlet Global Times published an unprecedented report that revealed a nuclear strike on the western United States with JL-2 missiles launched from ballistic missile submarines could kill 12 million Americans. In a previous report by the National Air and Space Intelligence, analysts said the new Chinese intercontinental ballistic missile, JL-2 "will, for the first time, allow Chinese SSBN (nuclear missile submarines), to target portions of the US from operating areas located near the Chinese coast".

The unsettling reports keep coming: The congressional US-China Economic and Security Review Commission stated in a report several years ago, that China is planning to deploy an anti-satellite missile on its SSBN fleet. Anti satellite missiles are key elements of China's anti-access, area denial capabilities designed to drive the US Navy out of Asia. China has been working on anti-satellite technology for decades. The lastest of which is reportedly onboard their Jin-class submarines. There was even a successful test on an aging satellite years ago. For now, though, China will continue to utilize a vast infrastructure of underground facilities, covered roads and bridges, weapons facilities, missile handling barns and other means to conduct secret testing of ballistic missiles and other armaments. Their anti-information control is as tight as it has ever been.

In this picture(top) released to a weapons enthusiast website, China shows off its newest strategic capability: Three nuclear powered missile submarines, or boomers.
Nuclear warheads are reportedly still housed in a central facility. It's not known if Chinese boomers carry live nuclear tipped missiles, though they certainly have the capability.

The US has a permanent attack sub base at its Guam base in the Phillipines. These state of the art boomers are on station to monitor China's rise in naval prominence, and its aggressive expansion in the South China Sea.

In my humble opinion, China will continue to act as an aggressor as long as the US allows it. In recent years, China has become emboldened while the US has shrunk it's influence in the world. China's robust growth and economy have allowed it to buy US debt, and is now our largest credit-holder. China has the upper-hand in economic strategic positioning at this time, and is producing worrysom accomplishments to add to it, such as a monster deal with Russia to import LNG for their fast-growing domestic consumption.

But as the "Bridge to Nowhere" theory progresses, China will reach the end of their economic boom, and their fragile economy will collapse in on itself, bringing the need to liquidate those strategic economic holdings. Our debt will be sold back to us for substantially less.

If China is allowed to expand unchecked though, they would secure enough territory, and with it power in their region to force it's widening position whether the US, Japan, Vietnam and Phillipines like it or not. Once again, the world is a safer place when the US is the strongest force on the planet. China is challenging us for that title.

-katykarter