The commander of the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet said Sunday that the US must “challenge” China’s “aggressive behavior” in the South China Sea, an area that has become a potential flashpoint for a conflict between Washington and Beijing.
The comments from Vice Adm. Karl Thomas came after incidents between Chinese and Philippine vessels near a disputed reef known as Second Thomas Shoal. One incident on August 5 involved Chinese boats firing a water cannon on Philippine vessels that were trying to resupply a grounded ship on the reef that Manila uses as a base of operations.
Thomas assured that the US would back the Philippines in the face of “shared challenges” and that Seventh Fleet forces, which are based in Japan, are “out here for a reason.”
“You have to challenge people I would say operating in a grey zone. When they’re taking a little bit more and more and pushing you, you’ve got to push back, you have to sail and operate,” he told Reuters. “There’s really no better example of aggressive behavior than the activity on August 5 on the shoal.”
Thomas made the comments while in Manila, where he met with the head of Philippine operations in the South China Sea, Vice Adm. Alberto Carlos. “We certainly shared challenges. So I wanted to better understand how he views the operations that he’s responsible for. And I want to make sure that he understood what I had available,” Thomas said.
In recent years, US officials have affirmed that the US-Philippine Mutual Defense Treaty covers attacks on Philippine vessels in the South China Sea, meaning the US is ready to intervene if the dispute between Beijing and Manila ever turns hot. Back in May, the US made the war guarantee official by adding new guidelines to the treaty.
More insanity from the perpetually adolescent military mind …..
Dude, Dave, no better comedy out there! “China‘s ‘aggressive behavior’ in the South China Sea…. incident on August 5 involved Chinese boats firing a water cannon on Philippine vessels.” (Sarcasm)
Maybe they fired water balloons, NA 😁
And, then China let the Filipinos restock the island. https://duckduckgo.com/?t=lm&q=china+lets+philippines+restock+island&ia=web
China:
US must be challenged in South China Sea.
Also in Persian Gulf…!
Also in Europe…! If Donald Chump The Chimp or DeSatan are elected the US will also need to be challenged in Latin America.
Doesn’t matter who’s elected, policy will remain in place as it has for decades. The uni-party is all powerful.
There are many more worthwhile struggles to be fought. Poverty ,Hunger,Womens rights,,Decent affordable medical care,Housing,Roads and Bridges,Climate Change. The totally useless and corrupted political system in the US will never let anything good happen.The people of the US have two armies to deal with. One fights mostly with tech stuff overseas. The one in this country is called Police which mostly protects rich people and their property.There is no area of life in America that does not need drastic change. Either we bring it about or we are dead men,women and children walking.
But, Americans have to sacrifice for Wash.’s and the EU’s ‘rules based world order.’ Even if it means a failed state in America, blood in the streets, (already happening) and nothing for all the things you list above. ‘God save the queen, man.’
That does make sense.
The BIDEN CREW is deranged, the guy talks like he expects another promotion. And Biden expects to get reelected? The voters must be crazier than Biden if they would vote for the demented Botox guy.
This Sleepy,Senile,Incompetant ,Idiot making decisions about the life and death of our citizens and the rest of humanity must cease immediately.Raaising the idea of an other Nuclear Power with a huge population,great Navy and short supply lines is bnorderline insanity just in a feeble and fatal attempt to keep a failing empire afloat.We need to send him back to Scranton.
They all need their a** kicked hard enough to make them fly to the moon, the piece of cheese in the sky.
The chances of that happening are nil.
Too bad, you are right.
He doesn’t make the decisions, he’s just a hand and arm to sign papers put in front of him before his afternoon lie-down.
Getting the next proxy ready for when the Americas Proxy war with Russia comes to a end .
A war with Russia, China, Iran is coming soon as soon as the propaganda is recognized for what it is. False flags may be coming also. Americans are so out of it today they will accept it until the war comes to their country.
I doubt it. US military isn’t capable of handling a war of such magnitude. The parasites who control puppets in Washington and London certainly do want to start a war but they don’t want to fight it. The imperial parasites are cowards and I believe Eurasian powers must exploit that weakness.
Stupid is as Stupid does…
Better tell your family, friends and neighbors the world is going insane, and Wash. is nuts and milling around like patients in the disturbed ward at the asylum.
As Caitlin Johnstone said, Lily:
Capitol Hill is an assisted living facility for psychopaths.
NICE to see at least someone is paying attention to the dangerous and petty squabbles of the power obsessed mini-minded madmen, sucking our treasury dry playing their losing hand of a fallen behind hegemon.
MV:
You can get receive Ms. Johnstone’s column in your inbox everyday just by signing up. If you’re not familiar with her, you won’t regret it.
She makes more sense than every Amerikkkan pol combined. Too bad she an Aussie; she’d make an exceptional leader.
She’s a very observant critic of the US, UK, and Australian regimes. But completely throws her own analytic criteria out the window when busking for e.g. the Chinese regime.
Just pull up and blow their ship up. Problem solved. Enough with this talk talk talk. Their actions, do indeed, call for a counter action. Their words, have been weaponized.
US openly hostile to China. Philippines a military ally supplying a military base in S. China Sea, of course China tries to impede it.
Vice Adm. Karl Thomas:“You have to challenge people I would say operating in a grey zone. When they’re taking a little bit more and more and pushing you, you’ve got to push back, you have to sail and operate.”
But tough guy Thomas is talking way above his pay grade for starting a war based on island disputes in the South China Sea. The chain of command for military operations goes from the President, to the Secretary of Defense, to Commanders of Combatant Commands. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff acts as an intermediary, transmitting orders between the Secretary of Defense and the Commanders of Combatant Commands, and then to officers like Thomas.
So there are people way above Thomas to decide about yet another war for the US. He must wait for guidance from above before he gets to his push-backs against mighty China and its actions regarding the sovereignty of islands and shoals which are of no real interest to the US except as an excuse for a new war and the profits it would bring.
The ‘Thomas Tantrum’ is a familiar strategy — encourage its allies to grab a contested island and then call up a handy military treaty. That’s how the US “defers war” and keeps China down.
In August 2012 Japanese activists planted their country’s flag on one of the Senkaku Islands (which the Chinese call the Diaoyu Islands), a chain claimed by China, Japan, and Taiwan. The United States then declared its unwavering support for Japan’s defense under the U.S.-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security, using its full range of capabilities, including nuclear. It also reaffirmed the fact that Article V of the Treaty applies to the Senkaku Islands.
It would be interesting to compare all of the water claimed by the US because of the Aleutian islands with all of the water claimed by China because of the tiny islands there.
Typical belligerent rhetoric from belligerent imperial terrorists. China shouldn’t respond in kind. The imperial parasites only understand the language of force. The best way to prevent such terrorism in Asia is by direct assault on imperial centers.