Posted June 2021
Staff Reporter
Since the end of World War II, into the Korean War, and well after the fall of the Soviet Union, one of the largest geopolitical shifts since the Mongol Conquest of the 13th century, a nation has been threatening the free world and its safety and prosperity. That nation being The People's Republic of China.
In 2020, the Japanese Defense Ministry published a statement in their White Pages that China has, “relentlessly continued attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by coercion in the sea area around the Senkaku Islands,” and that, “Japan cannot accept China’s actions to escalate the situation.” Proving the Chinese continue upon a reckless course of occupation in the Sea of Japan and adjacent waters. With the U.S. having roughly 55,000 deployed soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airman at 23 unclassified bases, the largest forward-deployed U.S. force anywhere in the world, it’s safe to assume the U.S. is preparing for future conflicts in the region. After, then President Jimmy Carter signed the Freedom of Navigation Act, bringing Article 87(1)a of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. This calls for the principle of customary international law that ships flying the flag of any sovereign state shall not suffer interference from other states, apart from the exceptions provided for in international law.
So, in 1988 after China first established a presence in the Spratlys, when its military forcibly removed a Vietnamese garrison from Johnson South Reef, and then in 2014 when Chinese Armed Forces began the construction of strategic land, air, and sea bases, and again in 2015 CIA satellite intelligence reported these bases housed thousands of troops, refueling stations for warships, runways for reconnaissance and strike aircraft, and most frighteningly, land based Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) silos with the capabilities of landing four-megaton nuclear warheads on the west coast of the continental United States, the Chief of Naval Operations acted on orders from the President to begin moving two Carrier Strike Groups into the South China Sea, placing the U.S. on a war footing. The Commanding Officer of the U.S. 7th Fleet, Vice-Admiral Bill Merz, was ordered to, “Protect the interests of the United States and the Free Word, by any means necessary,” authorizing the use of, “self-defense to protect his fleet and its sailors.” With two nuclear powered aircraft carriers, 7,500 personnel, three Guided-Missile Destroyers, two Guided-Missile Cruisers, and an air wing of 70 fixed-wing aircraft, the U.S. Department of Defense was not kidding around. Sailing with due-regard under protection of Article 87(1)-A of International Law of the Sea, the U.S. was free to navigate the waters of the South China Sea within miles of Chinese Military Installations to flex the overwhelmingly awesome might of the U.S. Navy.
Within days of the 7th Fleet’s arrival in the South China Sea, Chinese Warships were sent to form a blockade against the U.S. Fleet. Vice-Admiral Bill Merz ordered the Fleet be brought to full battle readiness, it was certain this wasn’t longer a display of Naval power projection in the Indo-Pacific. With only three nautical miles between the two fleets, the Commanding Officer of the Chinese Southern Fleet ordered the U.S. to, “Comply with our blockade and vacate Chinese waters immediately or be subject to defensive action.” To which Vice-Admiral Bill Merz responded, “The United Stated does not recognize your blockade—I am a United States military warship conducting lawful military activities acting outside national waters. I am acting with due regard in accordance with the international laws at Sea. Change your course Eastward or you may be fired upon within regulations of the Rules of Engagement.” Chinese warships held-fast for nine hours before complying with orders from the 7th Fleet.
After years of rising tension and steady unrest in the region, even through a global pandemic affecting both nations, the U.S. National Command Authority continues to deploy warships and assets to the region, not as much to occupy, but as to flex America’s awesome military superiority in power projection at sea and ashore, so much so to spend $4 billion on the development and construction of a new class of Frigate and Littoral-Combat warship. The United States has chosen to protect one of the most vital shipping lanes in the world, as it did in 1812 from the tyrannical British Empire threatening world peace and trade, and again in 1941 when we fought the Nazis in Europe and their sympathizers in Japan, or again in 1980 when the U.S. declared war on the Middle East to fairly distribute oil among the world and crush insurgents as they threatened the region with their ever developing war machine. Since the beginning, the United States of America stands fast but prepared to restore world order and guarantee, protect, and secure fair trade in the Strait of Hormuz, Strait of Gibraltar, and the South China Sea from any adversary.
