On Tuesday, US Navy ships and aircraft conducted drills in the Philippine Sea. The exercises were led by the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and the USS Antietam, a guided-missile cruiser.
According to the USS Reagan’s Facebook page, the ships and planes conducted an air power demonstration that showcased “firepower capability and maneuverability while at sea in the Indo-Pacific region.” The demonstration consisted of “formation flybys, high-speed aerial turns, rocket shoots, and a five-inch gun shoot from Antietam.”
The drills came less than a week after the USS Reagan joined an amphibious assault ship to conduct exercises with the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet, also in the Philippine Sea.
The exercises come as tensions between the US and China are higher than they have been in decades. Relations have rapidly deteriorated since the coronavirus pandemic began, which has come with an increase in military activity in the Pacific.
One of the more sensitive areas is the South China Sea, where the US rejects most of China’s claims to the waters. Throughout the summer, the US sent aircraft carriers to drill in these disputed waters, including the Reagan.
The “Philippine Sea” is defined by boundaries from the East coast of the Philippines up to Japan, with the Western boundary touching Taiwan.
The US calls this an exercise in the Philippine Sea, but China *sees* a major exercise on the shores of Taiwan that is aimed at Chinese claims and concerns about Taiwan’s independence.
Is China wrong to see that? Whatever. It doubtless does see it that way.
This is beyond right or wrong. It is foolish on the part of the US.
The US has no intention of fighting China for Taiwan, certainly not just now. To start that fight would be foolish.
Let’s be clear in our thinking. The US thought it could not happen, would not happen, when China intervened in Korea. Overconfidence led to Pearl Harbor. Overconfidence is the starting point on the road to ruin in much armed conflict.
Was Duterte impressed ? The extended Monroe doctrine is dead.