Chinese Aggressions

Incoming US Pacific Command chief wants to increase presence near China
By Mike Yeo

Fishermen on board a small boat pass by the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier Carl Vinson at anchor off Manila, Philippines on Feb. 17, 2018. 

MELBOURNE, Australia ― The nominee to be the next chief of the U.S. forces in the Pacific has called for an increase in U.S. forces from all three services stationed in the vital region, adding that China is now effectively able to control the South China Sea and challenge the U.S. presence in the region.
In his testimony at last week’s Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing, Adm. Philip Davidson also said he will work to recalibrate U.S. force posture in the Indo-Pacific region to align with the recently released 2018 National Defense Strategy, an effort he said “entails ensuring the continued combat readiness of assigned forces in the western Pacific (and) developing an updated footprint that accounts for China’s rapid modernization.”
Davidson, who has been nominated to take over U.S. Pacific Command, or PACOM, also said the strategic and operational environment outlined in the NDS clearly identifies the importance of developing and fielding a force posture that is capable of “countering Chinese malign influence in the region,” while describing actions in the South China Sea such as the One Belt One Road Initiative as China executing its own deliberate and thoughtful force posture initiatives.
Due to the distances involved in the Indo-Pacific, Davidson stressed that the U.S. cannot solely rely on surge forces from the continental United States to deter Chinese aggression or prevent a fait accompli. 

He also said PACOM must maintain a robust, blunt layer that effectively deters Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific.

U.S. Navy Adm. Philip Davidson, the incoming PACOM chief, is shown addressing Marines and sailors during a joint promotion and re-enlistment ceremony on May 27, 2016. 

However, he added there is insufficient forward-deployed and rotational forces from all three services in PACOM’s area of responsibility, or AOR, and the current force structure and presence does “not sufficiently counter the threats in the Indo-Pacific.”
He specifically noted that PACOM only has a quarter of its required intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability in its AOR, although he declined to go into further details of the ISR shortfall, instead saying “the shortfalls are identified and have been highlighted in PACOM’s regular contacts with the Joint Staff.”
Additional requirements for the AOR include command-and-control capabilities, as well as the “integration of long-range, high-speed, lethal, survivable and precision munitions capabilities in ships, submarines, patrol craft, land-based formations, bombers and fighters.” 

These, combined with robust numbers of fifth-generation platforms and the necessary tankers and transports, will provide U.S. forces an advantage in a denied environment in the near term, the officer explained.
Davidson also touched on the continuing effort to field a new generation of weapons such as the Conventional Prompt Global Strike long-range hypersonic weapons, which he said “will help meet military requirements in PACOM” by expanding the competitive space and by taking on adversaries in areas where the U.S. possesses advantages and adversaries lack strength.
Still, he cautioned that China has already been doing the same by weaponizing space and improving its ballistic missile technology and cyber capabilities.
The state of follow-on forces to be deployed to the AOR in the event of a conflict was also an area of worry, with Davidson expressing concern about the manning, training and equipping of U.S. follow-on forces. 

He emphasized that continuing resolutions, delayed appropriations and sequestration stemming from the budget impasse directly impacts the size and speed of a military response.

Sina Delenda Est

China’s smear campaign against a U.S. admiral backfires
By Josh Rogin 

The commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, Adm. Harry Harris, testifies before a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on April 26. 

The Chinese government is denying reports that its ambassador to Washington asked the Trump administration to fire Adm. Harry Harris, the head of U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) and a strong voice inside the U.S. government calling for a tough China policy. 

This may mark the end of Beijing’s not-so-subtle campaign against Harris, which has been going on for years.
During the presidential transition, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner established a secret channel for communication with the help of former secretary of state Henry Kissinger. 

On May 6, the Japanese newswire Kyodo News’s Beijing bureau reported that Cui requested Trump get rid of Harris, before last month’s summit between Trump and Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago, offering unspecified help to solve the North Korean crisis. 

“A source close to U.S.-China ties” told Kyodo that the Trump administration likely rejected the request.

One White House official told me today that Cui never requested to Kushner that the Trump administration fire Harris. 

But a Trump transition official who was briefed on the Cui-Kushner meetings told me that Cui did raise the issue during the transition, but no promises were made.
Regardless, Harris’s allies in Congress are ready to take up his cause if the Chinese effort against Harris continues or if the Trump administration tries to throw the admiral overboard. 

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said the Kyodo report was “outrageous” if true.
“I hope the Trump administration will reject such an inappropriate and presumptuous demand with the ridicule it deserves,” he said. 

“The fact that the Chinese government would make such a request only confirms that Admiral Harris is the right leader for Pacific Command.”
Pacific Command’s chief spokesman Capt. Darryn James told me that the story could be just another attempt by the Chinese government to smear Harris, as it has been doing for a long time.
“I don’t know anything about alleged conversations, but for years there’s been a lot of Chinese propaganda directed at Admiral Harris that we don’t pay much attention to,” said James. 

“Admiral Harris’s focus remains on protecting America’s interests in his area of responsibility.”
China’s Global Times, which often writes in support of the Chinese government, blamed the story on the Japanese media in a May 7 op-ed, accusing Japan of making up stories to thwart the warming of U.S.-China relations. 

The op-ed also claimed that China was fine with Harris being PACOM commander.
“Beijing has become more and more confident about developing ties with a Trump-led US,” it said. “China is able to keep normal interaction with the US Asia-Pacific command led by Harris. We do not count on any senior US official to take a pro-China position and we can cope with any who take a hard stance toward China.”
That’s a big shift from what the Chinese media has been saying about Harris since he became PACOM commander in 2015. 

Harris has been a strong voice inside the U.S. government for tougher measures to confront all manners of Chinese aggression, including its militarization of artificial islands in the South China Sea. 

It was Harris who famously coined the term “Great Wall of Sand” to describe Beijing’s effort to expand its control in the Western Pacific.
The Chinese government singled out Harris for attacks early on because it recognized his influence, said Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“They realized he was going to be an effective commander who was going to be able to marshal support for a tougher stance vis-a-vis China,” she said. 

“Harris has been willing to speak truth to power.”
China’s official and unofficial news agencies have been attacking Harris for years, often accusing him of being Japanese, in order to question his motivations. 

In fact, Harris’s mother was Japanese and his father was a U.S. Navy chief petty officer stationed in Yokosuka, Japan.“Some may say an overemphasis on the Japanese background about an American general is a bit unkind,” China’s official state media outlet Xinhua wrote last year.
“But to understand the American’s sudden upgraded offensive in the South China Sea, it is simply impossible to ignore Admiral Harris’s blood, background, political inclination and values.”

Beijing’s long campaign against Harris seems to have backfired. 

The shift in China’s tone suggests a realization that the more Harris is attacked by Beijing, the safer he may be in his job.
If Trump dumps Harris now, it will look like yet another concession to China that undermines U.S. and regional security in exchange for promises of future help on North Korea that may never come.