Current Events > Navy deploys two aircraft carriers to South China Sea.

(+) Yeah! (+)

In the wake of the Chinese outcry over the two U.S. Navy aircraft carriers now cruising the South China Sea, it's easy to assume the carrier deployments are yet another needless and bellicose nationalistic chest thump from an administration infamous for blowing up longstanding arms controls treaties and undermining key alliances.

But that would be wrong. In fact, they laudibly uphold the U.S. commitment to defend the common global good of entitling all countries the freedom to navigate the seas. The patrol missions are a rare case in which international law, defense of weaker nations and pursuit of the national interest are aligned.

These patrols involve U.S. military ships deliberately cruising through waters that China has claimed jurisdiction over to make the point that they are not, legally, under Beijing's exclusive control.

At issue is a simple, widely accepted principle of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea: that international waters extend no further than 12 nautical miles (13.8 miles) from a country's shore.

But the Chinese Communist Party doesn't think that principle should apply to the South China Sea, a body of water boxed in among southern China, Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia through which over one-fifth of the world's trade passes every year. Beijing makes sweeping but ill-defined claims to waters more than 1,000 miles beyond its territory, as can be seen in the map China submitted for international arbitration. (China lost the case in 2016 but had vowed beforehand that it wouldn't abide by the court's ruling.)

China's maritime militias ostensibly civilian boats under government control are being used to hound commercial and military shipping of nations that dare to traverse the South China Sea. And the Chinese military has used this claim to justify harassment of U.S. ships and aircraft, including unsafe intercepts by Chinese jets and the flashing of damaging lasers into the eyes of U.S. military pilots. The two-carrier patrol the first in the South China Sea in six years overlapped briefly with large-scale Chinese naval exercises near the disputed Paracel Islands, and it was met with bellicose threats in China's Global Times that the carriers could be sunk by China's "aircraft carrier killer" missiles.

U.S. policy is to conduct Navy patrols through these waters to challenge China's legally unsupported claims, preventing them from being enforced de facto. These freedom of navigation operations, therefore, uphold a principle in international law observed by virtually every other country, including the U.S. (though Republicans have prevented it from being formally ratified).

There's more than just international law at stake; China's expansionist claims come at the expense of countries with far less military and economic clout. The U.S. presence and patrols make it feasible for those countries to stand against Chinese pressure and defend their rights.

Fuck yea! Finally, Trump did something right. Fuck Beijing. The world needs to man the fuck up and stand up to them.

Lmao forget to log onto ur alt?

Thats a weird gimmick

Fuck yea! Finally, Trump did something right. Fuck Beijing. The world needs to man the fuck up and stand up to them.

Lol nice alt

Why's that a gimmick? If someone finds what I comment offensive, mark it, the comment in post #2 can get deleted instead of the entire topic.

Fuck yea! Finally, Trump did something right.

Fuck yea! Finally, Trump did something right. Fuck Beijing. The world needs to man the fuck up and stand up to them.