One China practice in South China Sea: Deploying combined fleet and patrol by HoonTing

One China practice in South China Sea: Deploying combined fleet and patrol 

by HoonTing

A looming risk for all the Pacific Rim countries might overturn the status quo of the geostrategic security in South China Sea, especially around Diaoyu Islands.  The cooperation between China and Taiwan, i.e. the practice of “one-China” policy, seems under way.

On April 25, the Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), Beijing, suggested a common responsibility for both sides of the Strait to protect Chinese sovereignty over the said islands and waters.  The next day, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), Taiwan, responded clearly to TAO's suggestion that ROC was not going to deal with these issues with the Mainland.  It seemed that MAC was determined to safeguard the sovereign right of Taiwan over the islands and waters; yet, the long term moves of the Ma administration have shown in the opposite direction.

On April 24, Chinese hawkish Global Times wrote a prophetic editorial saying that the situation would be changed dramatically, if Taiwan and China could cooperate closely.  The next day in TAO's press conference a journalist asked a question referring to the cooperation on Taiping Island (Itu Aba Island).  The question came just in time, as if they had a libretto in hand.

But, how would Taiwan cooperate with China on the island?

The Mirror, a Hong Kong based monthly, published an article in September, 2011, observing that Beijing should use Itu Aba Island as a base to build a new Taiping Island nearby, on which a large scale airport for military and civil purposes could be mapped out.  There are two different versions: one is using it as a base to explore the natural resources of the Sea and to protect the sovereignty; the more radical one is using it as a supportive port of PLA aircraft carrier.  Facing the perilous plan, the Ma administration said that it would evaluate the plan deliberately, showing no intention to object.

The following report might help illuminate the issue.

The Institute of International Relations, National Chengchi University, released a joint report "Assessment of South China Sea Situation in 2010," with its Chinese counterpart, National Institute for South China Sea Studies.  It is evident from the report that Taiwan, under Ma's rule, is snared deeply into the One-China ideology.  Taiwan, with the help of China, might stand against the US-Japan security ties someday, if things transpire this way.

In addition to referring to the article in the Mirror, the Report cited Professor Yuang-kuang Kao’s observation that on Taiwan controlled Taiping Island are many useful infrastructures, such as Southern Star wharf, a landing pier; a runway for over 3300 feet, long enough for C-130H Hercules military transporters; and a hospital, a meteorological observatory, besides satellite communication telephones and radar facilities.  Kao schemed to establish military mutual trust mechanism, if both sides could start cooperation in Taiping Island.  The Report envisaged in its last Chapter that the Mainland could reverse its disadvantage of lacking forward deployment posts, if Taiwan could provide convenience by shifting the island as a support base to China.  Through this, it added, the two sides could then strengthen and maximize their military projection around Spratly Islands.  The Report suggested further that it would reduce the risk of foreign invasion against the island as well as the region, through a stable military coordination mechanism across the Strait.  And they should actively collaborate to establish combined fleet and to patrol the South China Sea to protect the integrity of Chinese sovereignty and the territorial waters.  What is more, the Report suggested that military mutual trust across the Strait is the result if they could end the state of hostility to each other.  It should be noted that the proposals or envisages were made by the official institutions, not just plain scholars, which made the Report formal as well as political.

China Times Magazine, in Taiwan, revealed that governmental vessels of Vietnam entered the restricted and prohibited waters around Taiping Island on March 22 and 26, regardless of the warning from the garrison of Taiwanese Coast Guard Administration (TCGA).  It is said that there seemed to be a rifle shot against Taiwanese patrol vessels, yet no trace was found.  TCGA just confirmed later that a "low density provocative incident" happened.  Following the decision of National Security Council, Ma instructed the garrison to hold back.  Does Ma become impotent in dealing with the issue of South China Sea and Diaoyu Islands?  Does he sit watching the foreign invasion in order to fulfill the condition to establish a combined fleet by both sides of the Strait, as the Report stressed?  Ma, as a Commander-in-Chief, has to explain it further.    revised on 20120501

Chinese version: 一中合作：兩岸組建聯合艦隊，共同參與南海巡弋？