Drama in the South China Sea...
Didn't see this one coming...
Chinese vessels harassed American Military Surveillance ships in International Waters, South of Hainan Island in the South China Sea. The small boats dropped debris in the Navy ships path, steered their boats in direct obstruction, shouted at the American sailors and waved Chinese flags...
Ugly Nationalism is apparently not limited to the US and Russia.
The more things change...
What a shame.
Certainly the Chinese have the right to assert a greater degree of autonomy in these Seas, this is an area analogous to the North Atlantic waters off of Cape Cod - it's C-L-O-S-E to China and Hainan is the major Chinese Naval installation. In the spirit of their broad alliance and need to maintain close ties for the good of the World - these are the types of situations that can and should change. The days of American impunity in that region have obviously ended and that will only benefit everyone, America included.
But.
With regular contact established, a positive beginning to the new administration's relationship with China has seemingly been established. Secretary of State HIllary Clinton made China her first destination and made fostering positive vibes the focus of her visit. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is a China expert who speaks Mandarin, and should be a breath of fresh air for the Chinese after eight years of arrogant lectures from the likes of Economic 'experts' advising less savings and more structured finance and, by the way, we'd like to see more Churches...ugh.
A blind, bullet-ridden desperado with a catastrophic haircut could see that President Obama will make a more responsive, engaged partner than his predecessor...
So why would the Chinese set up a confrontation that could, easily, have led to disaster. Those Navy kids kept their cool and used hoses to deter the screamers, thank goodness. Where would the World be this morning if that had been bullets instead of water?
It was reckless symbolism. The LAST thing anyone needs. The sort of thing the Chinese seem to be preoccupied with...perhaps out of a sense of a emerging from a long-neglected period on the World stage, but that is long gone. No Country, least of all the United States is ever going to attempt to place China in a box and none COULD, even if they wished to. The threat to China is internal, not from the Tibetan dreamers, the Taiwanese entrepreneurs or the 'East Turkistanians' - but from the paranoia of its leadership.
Barack Obama must seize this incident as a chance to provide the Chinese with some good-feeling concessions in the South China Sea and to insist, in return, that the next time something is on the mind of the leadership - get Secretary Clinton on the PHONE or call the President directly. Change needs to occur to more accurately represent the balance of power in the region and the world, but that change need not come through intimidation or symbolism, it should come from conversation and negotiated agreement. No Chinese should seek to intimidate Americans with nationalistic displays...
...and Vice Versa.
For goodness sakes, we've got a global economy on its knees, an intransigent Islam on the docket, a resurgent totalitarianism in Russia and a 21st Century need to share science and shift the paradigm into Space. Childishness is not needed, vision and humility are.
The goal for both should be a relationship of mutual respect and open conversation.
Buzzing Naval vessels in the years after the USS Cole was sabotaged by Al Qaeda off of Yemen and Somalian pirates have been hijacking shipping in the Gulf of Aden is a provocation that should never have occurred.
China and the United States must see that it never does again.
