{"id":42450,"date":"2017-08-23T05:18:34","date_gmt":"2017-08-23T05:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=42450"},"modified":"2017-08-23T05:18:34","modified_gmt":"2017-08-23T05:18:34","slug":"naval-collision-adds-to-fears-about-u-s-decline-in-asia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/naval-collision-adds-to-fears-about-u-s-decline-in-asia.html","title":{"rendered":"Naval Collision Adds to Fears About U.S. Decline in Asia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Naval Collision Adds to Fears About U.S. Decline in Asia<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Naval Collision Adds to Fears About U.S. Decline in Asia:- For decades, the United States Navy has served as the foremost symbol of America’s power in the Asia-Pacific. With bases from South Korea to Japan to Guam and a fleet of warships bristling with modern weaponry, it has been a physical reminder of the nation\u2019s strength and vigilance in the region to friends and foes alike.<\/span><\/p>\n

Few images could have been as damaging to that reputation as that of the guided-missile destroyer John S. McCain limping into Singapore on Monday after a predawn collision with an oil tanker punched a hole in the warship\u2019s hull.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ten sailors were missing, and on Tuesday the Navy said divers had found the remains of some sailors in flooded compartments of the warship. A Navy statement Monday described how water had filled the crew\u2019s sleeping quarters, machinery rooms and communications facilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

The collision came less than two weeks after the same destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef, a contested atoll that China has built into a de facto military base. The patrol was meant to challenge Beijing\u2019s expansive claims in the South China Sea and underline the United States\u2019 naval dominance of the Pacific Ocean.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good, of course, to fly the U.S. flag in the region,\u201d said Carlyle Thayer, an emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia, who specializes in regional security issues. \u201cBut one picture is worth a thousand words, and this picture was of a high-publicity vessel in a very bad way. Perception-wise, that\u2019s huge.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s collision occurred at a time of disarray in Washington and as the United States\u2019 Asian allies have questioned its commitment to the region, especially as China\u2019s economic and military footprint grows. President Barack Obama vowed a foreign policy tilt toward the Asia-Pacific, pursuing an enhanced military presence and lower tariffs, though with limited success. President Trump, by contrast, has signaled a retreat and challenged old friends on trade barriers and the cost of American military outposts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now a string of Navy accidents on the Pacific\u2019s western edge has raised doubts about its operations too, particularly that of its Seventh Fleet, which is headquartered in Yokosuka, Japan, where the United States maintains a large naval base.<\/span><\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s accident came two months after seven sailors died when another guided-missile destroyer, the Fitzgerald, collided with a freighter off Japan. In May, the Lake Champlain, a guided-missile cruiser, collided with a South Korean fishing vessel, but no injuries resulted from that crash. Three months earlier, another such cruiser, the Antietam, ran aground in Tokyo Bay, gushing more than 1,000 gallons of hydraulic oil near Yokosuka.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt drives home growing worries about a competence deficit within American organs of power under the increasingly besieged Trump administration,\u201d said Richard Javad Heydarian, a political analyst at De La Salle University in Manila.<\/span><\/p>\n

In response to the repeated accidents, the Navy has called for a broad investigation into the Seventh Fleet\u2019s operations, which have grown ever busier as it responds to challenges in the South China Sea and from North Korea. All Navy ships around the world will pause operations for a day or two to reassess seamanship and other fundamentals.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Chinese state news media, which accused the Pentagon this month of provoking regional conflict by sending the John S. McCain near Mischief Reef, seized on the collision to step up its criticism of American forays in the South China Sea.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do these accidents happen again and again? The American Navy\u2019s arrogant, rude, unreasonable and egotistic attitude is the seed,\u201d said People\u2019s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party. \u201cThe international laws of collision avoidance are not observed, which is the root of these accidents.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In Japan, the news media worried about what a weakened Navy might mean for the United States\u2019 ability to protect the country. The Yomiuri Shimbun, a right-leaning newspaper, quoted a Japanese naval officer expressing concern about the capacity of American troops to conduct surveillance at a time of heightened tensions with North Korea.<\/span><\/p>\n

In South Korea, some people on social media said the collisions raised questions about the Pentagon\u2019s deployment of a new missile-defense system in the country and others joked that an enemy could disable American destroyers by deploying container ships.<\/span><\/p>\n

The accident occurred as America\u2019s allies in the region have been alarmed by missteps committed by Mr. Trump and his aides. A telephone call with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of Australia degenerated to the point where Mr. Trump called their discussion \u201cunpleasant.\u201d After the president threatened North Korea with \u201cfire and fury,\u201d his since-ousted White House strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, undercut him by declaring \u201cthere\u2019s no military solution\u201d against the North\u2019s nuclear program.<\/span><\/p>\n

Joseph Chinyong Liow, a dean at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said in a recent op-ed in the newspaper The Straits Times that the United States had become a \u201cdistracted power,\u201d and that turmoil in Washington had \u201cdisrupted the administration\u2019s ability to think strategically about global affairs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica\u2019s position of leadership has suffered as a result,\u201d he wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Liow acknowledged that the Navy had stepped up patrols in the South China Sea after a lull in the early months of the Trump administration. But he argued that the administration\u2019s failure to formulate a broader strategy in the region invited \u201cthe deeper question: Just how important is the South China Sea for the U.S.?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As Mr. Trump has announced the United States\u2019 withdrawal from major international accords, like the Paris climate agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, Beijing has positioned itself as a champion of globalization\u2019s rules of engagement. At a summit in Switzerland in January, President Xi Jinping of China defended free trade, implicitly rebuking Mr. Trump\u2019s protectionism.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the collision on Monday, the Chinese state news media also declared that Beijing was making progress on establishing rules for ships navigating the South China Sea \u201cwhile the U.S. Navy is becoming a dangerous obstacle.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. Navy, which likes to claim its presence can safeguard \u2018freedom of navigation\u2019 in the South China Sea, is proving to be an increasing hindrance to ships sailing in Asian waters,\u201d China Daily, an English-language government mouthpiece, said in an editorial.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even as China tries to position itself as a global good citizen, it has continued to reject an international tribunal\u2019s ruling against its territorial claims in the South China Sea. Last year\u2019s judgment came after the Philippines challenged China over claims to most of the resource-rich waterway, as well as its extensive island-building on reefs and rocks claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan, among others.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since then, however, President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, who took office shortly before the ruling, has edged toward China\u2019s embrace. The Philippines may be bound to the United States through a defense treaty, but Mr. Duterte said on a visit to Beijing last year that it was \u201ctime to say goodbye\u201d to the United States. He has scaled back joint exercises with the Navy while welcoming China\u2019s promises to develop local infrastructure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Vietnam recently appeared to back down in a diplomatic standoff with China, suspending a gas-drilling project in disputed waters. Some analysts suggested that concern about American commitment to the region led it to defer to Beijing.<\/span><\/p>\n

China enjoys clout in Asia in part because it is the largest trading partner for many nations in the region. Beijing\u2019s economic might has lured smaller countries like Laos and Cambodia into its orbit, and they have responded by scuttling forceful criticisms of China\u2019s expansion in the South China Sea from Asean, the Southeast Asian regional grouping.<\/span><\/p>\n

The recent Navy collisions may prod some American allies toward strengthening their own militaries. Earlier this year, Thailand\u2019s ruling junta, which has sharply increased military spending, pushed through an order for Chinese submarines.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, shedding strict limits on the military\u2019s activities \u2014 a product of the nation\u2019s postwar reliance on Washington for its defense \u2014 has long been a goal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201dPsychologically, Japan has to feel that we have to catch up or make up for the vacuum in the U.S. deterrence capability,\u201d said Takashi Kawakami, professor of international politics and security at Takushoku University in Tokyo.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Thayer, the Asia-Pacific security expert, said: \u201cThe U.S. Navy is still very powerful, but its aura of invincibility has taken a huge hit. American credibility in the region has taken a big hit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/08\/22\/world\/asia\/uss-mccain-collision-us-decline.html?mcubz=1<\/span><\/p>\n

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