US-China Tension Set To Esclate As China Mulls "Offensive" To Defend South China Sea

In a fresh escalation of tension, China has donned an offensive posture with regard to its rights in the South China Sea. In a provocative military white paper, China warned that a U.S.-China war is “inevitable” unless Washington back out from its objections to Beijing's activities.

The policy document published on 26 May, outlines China’s shift from a defensive military posture to flaunting of offensive capabilities. Claiming “grave and complex array of security threats” including challenges to its sovereignty over the South China Sea, the Chinese document authored by the State Council said the military will step up its “open seas protection.”

China also defended all its actions in South China Sea in an editorial published in the “The Global Times,” the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party. It described the construction of runways, harbour facilities and buildings on the disputed Spratly Islands as nation's “most important bottom line.”

Interestingly, the article in Global Times was published a few days after a U.S. naval aircraft undertook reconnaissance flights and was warned by the Chinese military repeatedly. The paper said Beijing does not want a conflict with the U.S., "but if it were to come, we have to accept it. If the U.S.'s bottom line is that China has to halt its activities, then a U.S.-China war is inevitable in the South China Sea," said in the article.

Lighthouse Construction

Meanwhile, Xinhua News Agency reported that China’s work on two lighthouses on the reefs in the South China Sea has begun. The reefs are also laimed by Vietnam and the Philippines also. Yang Yujun, a spokesman for the defence ministry dismissed international criticism of China's policies in the South China Sea and said development work anywhere is the same such as constructing roads and homes on mainland China and is meant to benefit "the whole of international society."

Commenting on the escalation of tensions, Robert Dujarric, director of the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies at the Japan campus of Temple University said, “I think the concern has to be that China misjudges the situation. Neither party wants a war if it can be avoided, but there are red lines for both sides. I worry that if Beijing considers the U.S. to be a declining power and assumes that Washington will back down if it shoots down a US observation aircraft.”

The analyst noted that Washington chose to "de-escalate" the crisis after a Chinese fighter collided with a U.S. Navy intelligence-gathering aircraft off Hainan Island in April 2011. Dujarric said the response may be different if a similar incident were to occur in international air space over the South China Sea.

Ulterior Motives

Meanwhile, a senior official with the People's Liberation Army called Chinese response to the overflying U.S. aircraft in South China Sea as "professional" and said Washington is playing up the issue with a hidden agenda. “For a long time, the U.S. military has been conducting close-in surveillance of China and the Chinese military has been making such necessary, legal and professional response -- why did this story suddenly pop up in the past weeks? Has the South China Sea shrunk?" Senior Col. Yang Yujun asked at a press conference, reported CNN.

(For feedback/comments, contact the writer at k.kumar@ibtimes.com.au)