Sina Delenda Est

US Navy proposing major show of force to warn China

By Barbara Starr

The US Navy's Pacific Fleet has drawn up a classified proposal to carry out a global show of force as a warning to China and to demonstrate the US is prepared to deter and counter their military actions, according to several US defense officials.
The draft proposal from the Navy is recommending the US Pacific Fleet conduct a series of operations during a single week in November.
The goal is to carry out a highly focused and concentrated set of exercises involving US warships, combat aircraft and troops to demonstrate that the US can counter potential adversaries quickly on several fronts.

The plan suggests sailing ships and flying aircraft near China's territorial waters in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait in freedom of navigation operations to demonstrate the right of free passage in international waters. 

The proposal means US ships and aircraft would operate close to Chinese forces.
The defense officials emphasized that there is no intention to engage in combat with the Chinese.
While the US military carries out these types of operations throughout the year, the proposal being circulated calls for several missions to take place in just a few days.
While one official described it as "just an idea," it is far enough along that there is a classified operational name attached to the proposal, which is circulating at several levels of the military. Officials would not confirm the name of the potential operation.

The Pentagon refused to acknowledge or comment on the proposal. 

"As the secretary of defense has said on countless occasions, we don't comment on future operations of any kind," said Lt. Col. David Eastburn, a Pentagon spokesman.
The US Pacific Fleet also refused to comment.
Word of the US Navy's proposal comes just days after what the Pentagon has called an "unsafe" encounter between US and Chinese destroyers in the South China Sea.
The US Navy said the Chinese destroyer Lanzhou came within 45 yards (41 meters) of the USS Decatur while the US ship was on a "freedom of navigation" operation near Chinese-claimed islands.
The 8,000-ton destroyers could have been seconds away from colliding, said Carl Schuster, a former US Navy officer who spent 12 years at sea.
The destroyer encounter capped weeks of heightened tensions between Beijing and Washington.
Late last week, US Secretary of Defense James Mattis pulled out of a planned visit to Beijing later in October, two US officials told CNN.
Mattis had originally planned to visit the Chinese capital to meet with senior Chinese officials to discuss security issues. 

The last-minute cancellation of the unannounced trip has not been publicly confirmed by the Pentagon.
Earlier in the week, the Chinese government canceled a port visit to Hong Kong by the USS Wasp, a US Navy amphibious assault ship.
Following the cancellation, the US Navy released a series of photos showing troops aboard the 40,000-ton Wasp taking part in a live-fire exercise in the South China Sea.
Also last week, the US flew B-52 bombers over the South China Sea and East China Sea.
Earlier in September, Washington levied sanctions against the Chinese military over its purchase of weapons from Russia, including Su-35 fighter jets and S-400 surface-to-air missile systems.
Meanwhile, on the economic front, the US and Chinese governments have been levying tariffs on an expanding number of each country's exports.
At a press conference last week, US President Donald Trump said his often-mentioned "friendship" with Chinese dictator Xi Jinping may have come to an end.

While the proposal for the week-long exercises is being driven by the US military, carrying it out it during November when US mid-term elections are taking place could have political implications for the Trump administration if the US troops are challenged by China.

The proposal for now focuses on a series of operations in the Pacific, near China, but they could stretch as far as the west coast of South America where China is increasing its investments. 

If the initial proposal is approved, the missions could be expanded to Russian territory.
Defense Secretary James Mattis and Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will take into account the diplomatic implications of each mission, officials said. 

They will also have to consider the risk of suddenly moving forces to new areas away from planned deployments, and whether potential threat areas are being left uncovered by the military, especially in the Middle East.
At this time the proposal is still being considered within the military.
The proposal has grown out of the Pentagon's National Defense Strategy which focuses on the growing military challenge posed by the Chinese and Russian militaries. 

Mattis has urged US commanders to come up with innovative and unexpected ways to deploy forces.
Currently the aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman is taking the unexpected step of operating in the North Sea -- sending a signal to Russia that US military forces can extend their reach to that area.

The Necessary War

Chinese warship nearly hits U.S. destroyer in South China Sea

By Danielle Paquette

The guided-missile destroyer USS Decatur operates in the South China Sea in October 2016.

BEIJING — China accused the United States of flouting its sovereignty Tuesday after an American warship sailed near islands claimed by Beijing in the disputed South China Sea, further rattling relations between the countries after weeks of escalating military tensions.
A Chinese destroyer came within yards of the U.S. Navy ship Sunday, compelling it to switch direction in what American officials called an “unsafe and unprofessional” clash.
China’s Defense Ministry countered that the USS Decatur should never have traveled through those waters in its “freedom of navigation” mission, provoking Beijing to order a Luyang-class warship to force it away from the Spratly Islands.
“The Chinese vessel took quick action and made checks against the U.S. vessel in accordance with the law, and warned it to leave the waters,” spokesman Wu Qian said in a statement.
The presence of American ships near the Chinese-claimed archipelago off the coast of the Philippines, Malaysia and southern Vietnam is “seriously threatening China’s sovereignty and security” and “seriously undermining the relations between the two countries and the two militaries,” Wu added.
A statement Monday from the U.S. Pacific Fleet blasted the Chinese response as “aggressive.”
“The PRC destroyer approached within 45 yards of Decatur’s bow, after which Decatur maneuvered to prevent a collision,” spokesman Charlie Brown said.
The Decatur had been conducting what the American military calls freedom of navigation operations, or missions to promote international lawfulness in oceanic territory claimed by multiple countries, including Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Washington has said the aim is to reject what it considers excessive maritime claims by any country.
Decatur ventured Sunday morning by reefs and rocks that Beijing has tried to turn into artificial islands to expand its grip on the South China Sea, but U.S. officials have maintained that such land doesn’t count as real territory, said Lawrence Brennan, a law professor at Fordham University in New York.
American and Chinese warships have had close encounters in the past, he added, but Sunday’s encounter “appears to have been closer than any recent event.”
The maritime showdown came about a week after Chinese officials canceled military talks with the United States that were supposed to be held in Beijing in late September.
The government scrapped the defense-related conversations in response to American sanctions imposed last month on Chinese military personnel for purchasing Russian combat aircraft and missile supplies.
Then Beijing called off a security meeting with Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis on Monday that had been scheduled for October, the New York Times reported.
The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The military strain between the world’s two largest economies has deepened even as they’re locked in an increasingly heated trade war.
Washington and Beijing hit each other with the largest round of tariffs yet last week, now covering roughly half their goods traded.
President Trump ordered new levies on $200 billion in Chinese imports, and Beijing responded with tariffs on $60 billion in American products, nearing the point of running out of U.S. goods to target.
Neither side has showed signs of giving up, and there are no trade negotiations scheduled to end the commercial battle.
President Trump warned in September that if Chinese dictator Xi Jinping refuses to budge, he will unleash tariffs on another $267 billion in Chinese imports, placing higher border taxes on basically everything the United States buys from China.
That order last year amounted to $505 billion.

Chinese Aggressions

US warship sails by contested island chain in South China Sea in message to Beijing
By Lucas Tomlinson

A U.S. warship sailed Sunday near two contested Chinese man-made islands in the South China Sea, the location where Beijing has built up military fortifications despite a pledge not to do so, a U.S. defense official told Fox News.
The “guided-missile destroyer USS Decatur (DDG 73) conducted a freedom of navigation operation in the South China Sea to uphold the rights and freedoms of all states under international law. Decatur sailed within 12 nautical miles of Gaven and Johnson Reefs in the Spratly Islands,” the U.S. official, who declined to be identified, said in a statement.
It’s not immediately clear how Beijing will respond. 

Normally, American warships have been shadowed by Chinese spy ships during similar operations in the past in addition to fighter jets.
The latest military operation -- which the Pentagon calls “routine” freedom of navigation maneuvers -- comes days after a series of actions between global powers.
The U.S. military last sailed a warship within 12 nautical miles of a contested Chinese island in May, the internationally recognized territorial boundary. 

By sailing a warship inside that boundary, the U.S. rejects the claim, a view shared by most of the international community. 

The news of the action was also reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The U.S. military last sailed a warship within 12 nautical miles of a contested Chinese island in May, the internationally recognized territorial boundary. 

The transit by the American destroyer Sunday follows a series of diplomatic standoffs between world powers.
Last week, China announced it would not allow a large U.S. warship to visit Hong Kong next month. On Wednesday, the U.S. Air Force flew nuclear-capable bombers near China in the East China Sea, which Beijing called “provocative” despite flying in international airspace. 

China also yanked its top admiral from Newport, R.I., last week days before he was set to meet his American counterpart.
Recent tensions come as the Trump administration has slapped additional sanctions on $200 billion in Chinese goods in recent days and taken the additional steps to sanction China over its purchase of Russian fighter jets and advanced surface-to-air missiles.
Last week, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis played down the recent disputes with China.
“It's international waters, folks. It's international waters,” Mattis said about the B-52 bomber flight and other recent “freedom of navigation operations” by other U.S. warships.

“If it was 20 years ago and they had not militarized those features there, it would've just been another bomber on its way to Diego Garcia or whatever, Mattis added. 

 “There's nothing out of the ordinary about it.”
In the Rose Garden outside the White House in 2015, Chinese dictator Xi Jinping pledged his country would not militarize the man-made islands Beijing had built atop former reefs. 

Since then, China has deployed surface-to-air missiles to some of the islands, a move which U.S. officials concede could one day affect U.S. military flight plans.
At the United Nations last week, President Trump accused China of meddling in the upcoming midterm elections in November.
“They do not want me or us to win because I am the first president ever to challenge China on trade. We are winning on trade. We are winning at every level,” Trump said at a U.N. Security Council meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi seated nearby.

China's new unnamed home-built aircraft carrier leaves Dalian in northeast China's Liaoning Province for sea trials Sunday, May 13, 2018. 

In his annual address to the U.N. General Assembly, President Trump said China's trade policies "cannot be tolerated" anymore.
“We have racked up $13 trillion in trade deficits over the last two decades, but those days are over. We will no longer tolerate such abuse, we will not allow our workers to be victimized, our companies to be cheated and our wealth to be plundered and transferred.”
Two years ago, the U.S. military accused their Chinese counterparts of stealing two American underwater drones in the South China Sea as the U.S. Navy operated them from a short distance away. 

The Chinese returned the drones weeks later in boxes.

Chinese Aggressions

USS Stethem Conducts Freedom of Navigation Operation Past Triton Island in South China Sea
By Sam LaGrone

USS Stethem (DDG-63) operating in the Pacific on March 22, 2017. US Navy Photo
A U.S. destroyer came within 12 nautical miles of a Chinese holding in the South China Sea, a U.S. defense official told USNI News on Sunday morning.
USS Stethem (DDG-63) passed by Triton Island in the Paracel Island chain on Sunday to test claims by not only Bejing but also Vietnam, the official confirmed to USNI News.
Since the Trump administration has begun testing excessive maritime claims in the South China Sea, Pentagon officials have repeatedly said they would not confirm reports of freedom of navigation operations outside of the yearly report that outlines the operations.
“U.S. forces operate in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region on a daily basis, including in the South China Sea. All operations are conducted in accordance with international law and demonstrate that the United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows. That is true in the South China Sea as in other places around the globe,” U.S. Pacific Fleet spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Matt Knight said in a statement to USNI News on Sunday.
“We conduct routine and regular FONOPs, as we have done in the past and will continue to do in the future. Summaries of these operations are released publicly in the annual DoD Freedom of Navigation Report, and not sooner.”
The passage was first reported Sunday morning by Fox News. 

Fox reported a Chinese warship shadowed Stethem during the transit.
While Pentagon officials are reticent to confirm details, it is likely Stethem conducted an innocent passage past Triton and tested Chinese requirement for prior notification before entering "territorial waters" and Beijing’s expansive claims around the Paracel Island chain.
“China claims illegal straight baselines that encircle the entire island group,” James Kraska, a professor of international law, oceans law and policy at the U.S. Naval War College’s Stockton Center for the Study of International Law told USNI News last year.
In October, USS Decatur (DDG-73) conducted a freedom of navigation operation that tested just the baseline. 

Vietnam also has claims to the territory which China has occupied since the 1970s.
In early 2016, USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG-54) came within 12 nautical miles of Triton Island in the Paracels — without prior notification.

CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative/DigitalGlobe Photo
“This operation challenged attempts by China to restrict navigation rights and freedoms around the features they claim by policies that require prior permission or notification of transit within territorial seas. The excessive claims regarding Triton Island are inconsistent with international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention,” the Pentagon said at the time.
Stethem’s transit follows a May operation in which USS Dewey (DDG-105) passed within six nautical miles of the Chinese installation on Mischief Reef in the boldest statement the U.S. has made to date in challenging China’s claims to its artificial islands.
Without prior notification, Dewey came within six nautical miles of Mischief Reef and conducted a man-overboard drill as part of the test of Chinese claims.
While China’s militarization of its chain of artificial islands in the Spratly Islands chain closer to the Philippines have drawn the most international concern, Beijing has also been installing military equipment in its Paracel Island chain closer to Vietnam.
USNI News understands in May the Office of the Secretary of Defense presented the National Security Council a schedule for future regional FON ops to create a menu of options for the NSC to choose from when U.S. assets are in the region.

The following is the July 2, 2017 complete statement from U.S. Pacific Fleet to USNI News.
U.S. forces operate in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region on a daily basis, including in the South China Sea. 

All operations are conducted in accordance with international law and demonstrate that the United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows. 

That is true in the South China Sea as in other places around the globe.
We have a comprehensive Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOP) program under which U.S. Forces challenge excessive maritime claims across the globe to demonstrate our commitment to uphold the rights, freedoms, and uses of the sea and airspace guaranteed to all nations under international law.
FONOPs are not about any one country, nor are they about making political statements. 

In fiscal year (FY) 2016, we conducted FONOPs challenging excessive maritime claims of 22 different coastal States, including claims of allies and partners.
We conduct routine and regular FONOPs, as we have done in the past and will continue to do in the future. 

Summaries of these operations are released publicly in the annual DoD Freedom of Navigation Report, and not sooner.

Sina Delenda Est

Why the World Should Fear a 'Thucydidean' China: A China of Athenian inclinations would be a domineering China, apt to bully Asian neighbors that can’t match up to Chinese diplomatic, economic, or military might.
By James Holmes

“We don’t care about your stupid FONOPs.” 

That’s what a group of retired People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) officers told an American interlocutor recently. 

They referred, of course, to the “freedom-of-navigation” patrols the U.S. Navy has undertaken in the South China Sea of late. 

Most recently the destroyer USS Decatur mounted a challenge in the Paracel Islands. 

But if not FONOPs, what does get Chinese blood pumping? 

“We care about our ability to project power,” quoth the doughty seafarers. 

“Law is only as good as it can be enforced.”
How refreshingly Thucydidean! 

Or, more precisely, how refreshingly Athenian. 

Odd, isn’t it, how politics makes strange bedfellows? 

And few bedfellows could be stranger than the compact democratic city-state from Greek antiquity and the sprawling one-party authoritarian state that is contemporary China. 

But however radically they differ in domestic rule, classical Athens and present-day China operate from similar principles in the international realm.
These hardbitten principles derive from the conviction that law and justice go no further than arms can take them. 

They find their clearest expression in the “Melian Dialogue,” wherein Athens makes a weaker neighbor an offer it can’t refuse—join the Athenian empire or die—then metes out a harsh fate when the neighbor does refuse. 

The Melian Dialogue isn’t just a historical episode. 

It’s a parable about the consequences of too lopsided a power mismatch against an amoral foe.
Thucydides is the premier chronicler of the Peloponnesian War and an eyewitness to many of the war’s events. 

In the father of history’s telling, Athenian statesmen are forthright about the exploitative nature of the system they superintend. 

In the early years of the Peloponnesian War, “first citizen” Pericles reminds his countrymen that Athens is a tyranny abroad, regardless of how liberally it comports itself at home. 

It may have been wrong to seize an empire; it’s dangerous to let it go once it has been taken. Paybacks are hell.

Pericles knew whereof he spoke. 

Founded as a democratic alliance in the wake of the Persian Wars, the Athenian-led Delian League degenerated into a coercive empire as the fifth century B.C. wore on. 

Athens moved the league’s treasury from the island of Delos to Athens, stripped its allies of their navies, and forbade the allies to erect walls around their cities—walls that might empower them to defy Big Brother’s bidding. 

No ally was permitted to leave the empire.
That’s tyranny with a capital T. 

Brute power constitutes the prime mover impelling Athenian actions. 

Thucydides relates the tale of the fateful encounter between Athens and the island city-state of Melos. In so doing he lays bare Athenian motives.
Melos occupied a strategic offshore location near Athens’ archfoe Sparta, making the island an ideal outpost for naval operations. 

The Athenian assembly dispatched a delegation to wring surrender from them.
After entreating the Athenian ambassadors to allow them to maintain their neutrality, the islanders opt to defy the Athenian demands. 

Melos falls after a brief siege, whereupon the Athenian assembly votes to kill the adult male populace and enslave the women and children.
The Melian Dialogue reveals several undercurrents in Athenian power politics. 

First of all, the Athenian emissaries—much like our retired PLAN officers—maintain that questions of justice seldom arise in international politics absent a rough parity of arms between antagonists. This elemental reality is not lost on the Melians, who seem resigned to defeat from the beginning yet cling stubbornly to their independence. 

“We see that you have come prepared to judge the argument yourselves, and that the likely end of it all will be either war, if we prove that we are in the right, and so refuse to surrender, or else slavery.” Athens confronts them with a Catch-22.
The Athenians agree with the Melians’ grim prognosis, proclaiming that “the standard of justice depends on the equality of power to compel and that in fact the strong do what they have the power to do and the weak accept what they have to accept.” 

For Athenians this amounts to a divine law. 

“Our opinion of the gods and our knowledge of men lead us to conclude that it is a general and necessary law of nature to rule whatever one can.” 

Not only is this a permanent precept of international relations, but “anybody else with the same power as ours”—including the Melians—“would be acting in precisely the same way.”
A China of Athenian inclinations would be a domineering China, apt to bully Asian neighbors that can’t match up to Chinese diplomatic, economic, or military might. 

For a statement displaying a Melian tenor, look no further than Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, who in 2010 told a meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum: “China is a big country and other countries are small countries and that is just a fact.” 

We’re big, you’re small—get used to it. 

Take note, Asian countries, if you treasure your rights under the law of the sea.

U.S. Defense Department Confirms USS Decatur Did Not Follow Innocent Passage and Challenged China’s Excessive Straight Baselines

By Julian Ku 

In my analysis of the USS Decatur’s freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) near the China-occupied Paracel Islands last month, I wrote that the FONOP “probably” did not follow innocent passage and “most likely” challenged China’s excessive straight baselines. 

 I hedged my language on both points a little because the initial US government statement called the passage “routine” and did not mention straight baselines.
Thanks to Commander Gary Ross, from the press office of the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, I can now confirm both facts. 

 In an email to me, Commander Ross writes: In this operation on Oct. 21, the U.S. naval vessel USS Decatur engaged in normal operations by conducting a non-provocative maneuvering drill.
"Normal operations" refers to the exercise of "high seas" freedoms under international law as reflected in Articles 58 and 87 of the Law of the Sea Convention. 

This differs from innocent passage, which involves the continuous and expeditious traversing of the territorial sea. 

Normal operations can be demonstrated through the exercise of maneuvering drills, launch and recovery of aircraft, man-overboard drills, or other non-continuous/non-expeditious actions.
In response to my emailed query, Commander Ross also confirms that the Decatur FONOP was aimed at challenging China’s excessive straight baselines.

Paper Tiger

America's “Innocent Passage” Did More Harm Than Good

By James Holmes

Unambitious. 

That’s the proper adjective for USS Decatur’s “freedom of navigation” cruise near the Paracel Islands last week. 

Released last year, the Pentagon’s Asia-Pacific Maritime Security Strategy lists “safeguarding freedom of the seas” first among U.S. strategic priorities for the region, followed by “deterring conflict and coercion” and “promoting adherence to international law and standards.” 

The Maritime Security Strategy is a fine document on the whole, and there’s no quarreling with its to-do list. 

The document also presents observers a yardstick to judge Decatur’s exploits in the South China Sea.
The yardstick tells a sobering tale: on balance the operation advanced none of the Pentagon’s self-professed strategic aims. 

It challenged one minor Chinese infraction—Beijing’s demand that foreign ships request permission before transiting waters China regards as its own—while letting China’s major affronts to freedom of the seas stand. 

Indeed, by seeming to acquiesce in the notion that the transit was an “innocent passage” through Chinese-claimed waters, the operation may have actually vindicated Beijing’s lawlessness. 

That’s no way to promote adherence to international law and standards, let alone deter conflict or coercion.
Let’s review the legal dimension, then examine how misconceived operations ripple through U.S. alliances in the Indo-Pacific. 

Legalities first. 

The Aegis destroyer traversed waters that China deems part of its “territorial sea,” offshore waters subject to Chinese sovereignty. 

But a simple transit like Decatur’s does nothing to dispute Beijing’s assertion that it makes the rules regulating shipping in the South China Sea—including the Paracels. 

Indeed, the law of the sea explicitly permitsforeign vessels to pass through a coastal state’s territorial sea provided that’s all they do—pass through.
That’s why the doctrine is known as innocent passage. 

A vessel undertaking an innocent passage must refrain from all manner of routine military activities. It may not operate aircraft from its decks, conduct underwater surveys, or do anything else that might be construed as impeaching the coastal state’s security. 

Decatur evidently desisted from all of these activities—and thus comported itself as though it were executing an innocent passage through China’s rightful territorial waters.
What does acting as though China’s claims are legitimate prove? 

Not much. 

The voyage did nothing to dispute Beijing’s effort to fence off the Paracels within “baselines” sketched around the archipelago’s perimeter and proclaim sovereignty—physical control backed by force—over the waters within. 

To reply to that claim, Decatur should have made the transit while carrying out every activity Beijing purports to forbid—sending helicopters aloft, probing the depths with sonar, and on and on. 

What China proscribes, in other words, friends of freedom of the sea must do.
Fail to contest excesses and you consent to them by default.
Now, it is true that Decatur’s crew didn’t request Chinese permission before making the crossing. 

The destroyer’s matter-of-fact approach flouted China’s demand that foreign ships request permission before transiting its territorial sea. (For that matter, China insists that skippers ask permission before essaying “any military acts” in its offshore “exclusive economic zone,” the expanded sea belt where the coastal state has exclusive rights to harvest natural resources from the water and seafloor. Apart from the right to extract resources, the coastal state has no special say-so over what happens in the EEZ. The EEZ and the waters beyond comprise the “high seas,” a “commons” that belongs to everyone and no one.)
In effect, then, USS Decatur and the U.S. Navy were quibbling over a trivial rule China wants to enforce rather than denying that China has any right to make such rules.
One suspects Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, the destroyer’s namesake, would shake his head in bafflement. 

Decatur was among the most venturesome seafarers in U.S. naval annals, and not someone to blanch at jabbing coastal-state rulers who entertained grandiose pretensions. 

In 1804, Decatur brought the ketch USS Intrepid under the guns of Tripoli—and risked being blasted to splinters—to burn the captured sail frigate USS Philadelphia before the pasha put her to work raiding U.S. merchantmen. 

Afterward Lord Horatio Nelson—himself no slouch at nautical derring-do—reportedly acclaimed Decatur and Intrepid sailors for pulling off the “most bold and daring act of the age.”
High praise indeed! 

In fact, Decatur furnishes a north star to guide U.S. Navy exploits on behalf of maritime liberty.
Now consider alliance relations. 

The softly, softly approach underwriting Decatur’s cruise might mollify China, although you would never know it from the Chinese spokesmen huffing and puffing afterward about “illegal” and “provocative” U.S. actions. 

But circumspection in a good cause—the cause of freedom of the seas—does little to inspire fellow seafaring states to run risks of their own. 

Quite the reverse.
Consider what some of America’s closest allies have done in recent months. 

Last month the uniformed chief of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force distanced Tokyo from the South China Sea disputes, ruling out joint freedom-of-navigation patrols alongside the U.S. Navy. The Australian government has evidently gone wobbly as well. 

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has declared that the Royal Australian Navy doesn’t conduct freedom-of-navigation demonstrations within 12 nautical miles of Chinese-claimed islands—the outer limit of the territorial sea. 

Nor does Canberra do much to challenge Beijing’s pretensions elsewhere in the South China Sea.
And don’t get me started on Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, a statesman who could play a character from a Stephen King novel in his post-presidential career. 

The president takes to its utmost extreme the “realist” logic that weak powers should “bandwagon” with nearby “hegemons”—ingratiating themselves with domineering powers like China to protect themselves from those domineering powers and, with any luck, advance their parochial interests in the bargain. 

Around the same time Decatur was transiting near the Paracels, Duterte gave a fiery speech in Beijing announcing the Philippines’ “separation” from the U.S.-Philippine alliance while professing fealty to China.
Take Duterte as a symptom—not the cause—of the malaise afflicting U.S.-Philippine relations. 

One doubts he would make such a break with the Philippines’ longstanding patron were he confident in America’s staying power in Southeast Asia, and in the durability of its commitment to the archipelagic state’s defense. 

Emboldening prospective foes while disheartening allies and friends is doubtful strategy. 

And yet that’s what happens when a superpower declares ambitious strategic aims in a document like the Asia-Pacific Maritime Security Strategy yet pursues these aims incoherently and halfheartedly.
In short, Washington has made itself look like an inconstant steward of the global commons. 

In the future the U.S. Navy must challenge what needs to be challenged—reassuring allies and friends that America remains strong and resolute. 

And as naval leaders draw up operations and strategy, they should ask themselves:
What would Decatur do?

San Diego to South China Sea: U.S. Navy tested new command in latest challenge to China

By Tim Kelly | TOKYO

Guided-missile destroyer USS Decatur (DDG 73) operates in the South China Sea as part of the Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) in the South China Sea on October 13, 2016. 

The U.S. Navy destroyer that sailed near Chinese-claimed islands in South China Sea last week was under orders from the Third Fleet headquarters in San Diego, a first aimed at bolstering U.S. maritime power in the region, two sources said.
The USS Decatur on Friday challenged China's "excessive maritime claims" near the Paracel Islands, part of a string of islets, reefs and shoals over which Beijing has territorial disputes with its neighbors.
It was the first time such a freedom of navigation operation has been conducted without the Japan-based Seventh Fleet in command and was a test of changes aimed to allow the U.S. Navy to conduct maritime operations on two fronts in Asia at the same time, two sources told Reuters. 

The sources spoke on condition they weren't identified.
Having the Third Fleet regularly command vessels in Asia, which it has not done since World War Two, means the U.S. Navy can better conduct simultaneous operations such as on the Korean peninsula and in the Philippines, said one of the sources, who is familiar with the goals of the reorganization.
"It is the first iteration of what will be a more regular operations tempo," he said.
The guided-missile destoyer Decatur is part of a three-ship Surface Action Group (SAG) that was deployed to South China Sea six months ago, said Commander Ryan Perry, a spokesman for the Third Fleet in San Diego, who confirmed the Third Fleet's command role.
U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Scott Swift last year signaled a wider role for the Third Fleet when he said he was abolishing an administrative boundary along the international date line that had separated the Third and Seventh fleets. 

Until then, Third Fleet vessels crossing the line came under Seventh Fleet command.
Earlier this year, an official told Reuters more ships from the Third Fleet would be sent to East Asia.
The reorganization, which gives the Third Fleet a bigger frontline role, comes as momentum for the United States' Asian "pivot" falters and as Beijing's growing assertiveness fuels tensions in the South China Sea.
China claims most of the sea through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes a year. 

The Philippines, Vietnam and Brunei have overlapping claims.
Beijing has accused Washington of deliberately creating tension by sailing its ships close to China's islands.
The latest operation, the fourth so far, came as the Philippine's new president, Rodrigo Duterte, traveled to China seek deeper ties with Asia's biggest economy. 

Duterte is visiting U.S. ally Japan this week.
The Seventh Fleet, which is headquartered at the Japanese port of Yokosuka near Tokyo is the most power naval fleet in Asia with some 80 ships, including the United States' only forward deployed carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan.
The U.S. Third Fleet consist of more than 100 vessels, including four aircraft carriers.

U.S. runs freedom-of-navigation operation in South China Sea - officials

By Idrees Ali and Matt Spetalnick | WASHINGTON

A U.S. navy warship carried out a freedom-of-navigation operation on Friday near islands claimed by China and two other Asian countries in the South China Sea, U.S. officials told Reuters.
The guided-missile destroyer USS Decatur challenged "excessive maritime claims near the Paracel Islands," specifically Triton and Woody Islands, claimed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam, the U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The destroyer sailed within waters claimed by China, but not within the 12-nautical-mile territorial limits of the islands, the officials said. 

The U.S. military defines a freedom-of-navigation operation as one that challenges excessive maritime claims, officials said.
The Pentagon declined to comment.
One official said the U.S. destroyer was shadowed by three Chinese vessels and that all interactions were safe. 

The operation was first reported by Reuters.
It was the fourth challenge that the United States has made to what it considers overreaching maritime claims by China in the South China Sea in the past year, and the first since May.
China, Washington's main strategic rival in Asia, claims almost the entire South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion worth of trade passes each year. 

The United States has criticized Beijing's build-up of military facilities in the sea and expressed concerns they could be used to restrict free movement.
China has a runway on Woody Island, the site of the largest Chinese presence on the Paracels, and has placed surface-to-air missiles there, according to U.S. officials.
In the last three U.S. freedom-of-navigation operations in the South China Sea within the last year, U.S. warships cruised within 12 nautical miles of islands claimed by Beijing. 

The actions greatly angered China, which has accused the United States of stirring up trouble there.
The latest operation comes just after the volatile president of the Philippines announced his "separation" from Washington and realignment with China. 

The Philippines has been a key ally of the United States and a territorial rival of Beijing in the South China Sea.
Rodrigo Duterte's announcement on Thursday was a significant turnaround after a tribunal in The Hague ruled that China did not have historic rights to the South China Sea in a case brought by the previous Philippine administration and strongly backed by the United States.
But in Washington a person close to the matter said the latest naval operation was not timed for Duterte's China visit this week and that planning for the patrol had long been in the works.