US should beware of the tail wagging the dog

An important factor behind instability in the South China Sea is the restiveness of some external forces, which hope to hype up maritime disputes and profit from the fray, while a handful of politicians in the Philippines eagerly look to external intervention to meet their own narrow ends.

On Tuesday, the USS Charleston, a littoral combat ship of the US Navy, trespassed into the waters near Xianbin Reef of the Nansha Islands without the permission of the Chinese government, prompting Chinese naval forces to track and monitor it.

The United States always describes such a move as an assertion of "navigational rights". But, as Yin Gang, a spokesman for the Chinese People's Liberation Army Southern Theater Command Navy, said, the move infringed on China's sovereign rights and interests, threatened maritime security, and undermined regional peace and stability, as China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters.

The US should immediately cease such activities, and the theater command's forces remain on high alert to safeguard China's national sovereignty and security and maintain regional peace and stability, Yin stressed.

Washington's latest naval operation inevitably sends a political signal to Manila, its treaty ally. If some Philippine politicians interpret US military support as a guarantee against the consequences of confrontation — they do — the alliance could inadvertently lead to an escalation it claims it is intended to deter.

The same dilemma is emerging farther north. This week the US and Japan began the Keen Sword 27 joint military exercises, involving roughly 45,000 Japanese and 12,000 US personnel. The exercises include advanced missile systems deployed around Japan's southwestern islands, close to China's Taiwan region. Although Japanese commanders insist that the drills target no particular country, their strategic implications are unmistakable.

For Beijing, such exercises reinforce concerns about Japan's expanding military ambitions, particularly amid provocative rhetoric from its right-wing politicians.

Washington should remember that China and the US fought shoulder by shoulder against Japanese militarism during World War II. They have shared interest in preserving the postwar international order. The US should therefore refrain from sending wrong signals to the Japanese neo-militarists, who are eager to count on the US' endorsement of their military build-up.

The US should also be wary that its military presence in East Asia and the South China Sea is increasingly being exploited by the neo-militarists in Japan and the opportunists in the Philippines.

The more the latter two trumpet "freedom" and "order" in the "Indo-Pacific", the more it reveals that they are trying to conceal their selfish aims from the US. Borrowing US rhetoric is an effective way to anesthetize Washington, and their own self-serving calculations are plain for all to see.

On Oct 10, China's National Defense Ministry spokesperson reiterated the Chinese military's willingness to strengthen communication with the US side, manage differences and prevent miscalculation.

This statement fully demonstrates that China approaches military-to-military relations in a responsible manner.

But the US, alongside its regional allies, should realize that no external force will weaken China's resolve to defend its sovereignty, territorial integrity and core interests.

The Asia-Pacific's prosperity rests on commercial interdependence, functioning supply chains and decades of relative peace. Neither a second Ukraine crisis nor another Middle Eastern conflict would serve the region's interests, including those of the US.

Neither Europe nor the Middle East is short of so-called "security alliances" of various kinds, but the crises in Ukraine and the Middle East amply demonstrate that when security alliance relationships are driven by the selfish interests of individual countries, they become a real threat to regional peace and stability rather than a safeguard. The security treaties that Japan and the Philippines each cling to with the US are increasingly displaying similar dangers.