(OPINION) BIN – As the pandemic that began in Wuhan ravages the world, tensions between the U.S. and China are flaring up, being manifested even in the military realms to a worrying degree as Chinese warships engage their American counterparts and U.S. bombers patrol the skies of Asia. A broader, more prophetically centered perspective, may not give much solace to those who prefer to spend this time healing rather than fighting.
Last Tuesday, the Chinese government claimed its military scrambled ships and aircraft to “track, monitor, verify, identify and expel” a U.S. warship from the Paracel Island chain in the South China Sea.
“These provocative acts by the U.S. side … have seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security interests, deliberately increased regional security risks and could easily trigger an unexpected incident,” reads a statement from PLA Southern Theatre Command spokesman Li Huamin, reported the South China Morning Post.
The presence of a U.S. Navy vessel in the region was confirmed by Navy officials to USNI News who said that the guided-missile destroyer USS Barry (DDG-52) conducted a freedom of navigation operation in the vicinity of the island chain off Vietnam. The official stated that the operation proceeded as planned without encountering any unsafe or unprofessional behavior from Chinese military aircraft or warships.
Taiwanese media reported that the American vessel sailed through the Taiwan Strait twice this month, followed both times by Chinese warships. The Paracel Islands, known as the Xisha Islands in China and the Hoang Sa Archipelago in Vietnam, are a group of more than 30 islands in the South China Sea located between the coastlines of Vietnam and China. READ MORE
