US may block Malacca Strait to contain China: Huanqiu｜Politics｜News｜WantChinaTimes.com
Huanqiu, the website of China's nationalistic tabloid Global Times, translated a piece from US military newspaper Stars and Stripes which details the Air-Sea Battle tactics proposed by the US military and another less-aggressive strategy that aims to block China's economic access to the Strait of Malacca.
The tactics were tested by the US military during the Valiant Shield exercise held in the western Pacific Ocean in mid September this year. They were described as concepts rather than a strategy, aimed at increasing the military's "anti-access, area-denial" capability and enabling them to reenter international waters and airspace if they were blocked. Although the US defense department carefully left China out of its 2013 summary of the tactics, they were considering a measure to contain China's increasing hostility.
TX Hamas, a retired Marine colonel and a researcher at National Defense University, argued that the tactics failed to recognize that the US military cannot find and attack China's solid-fueled missiles and mobile missile launchers in time and that the tactics could ultimately lead to a nuclear war. He proposed blocking China's access to the Malacca Strait to minimize conflict with China.
It would take only 13-15 Marine teams to keep 800 Chinese ships from importing or exporting goods through Chinese ports in the Strait of Malacca, said the researcher, who thinks the measures could effectively "strangle" China but allow the Chinese Communist government not to lose face. He argued that Beijing will buckle because the country will "need the rest of the ocean."
China's neighbors within the blocked regions will not be happy with the measures, some people argued. Analysts cited by Stars and Stripes said any conflict involving the world's two largest economies is "inherently unpredictable."
The translated article was ranked the fourth most read piece on Huanqiu after two pieces on Hong Kong's Occupy Central protest and one on a Kunming police officer killed by Vietnamese nationals as of Tuesday afternoon. More than 1,000 Chinese internet users viewed or commented on the article.
Huanqiu, the website of China's nationalistic tabloid Global Times, translated a piece from US military newspaper Stars and Stripes which details the Air-Sea Battle tactics proposed by the US military and another less-aggressive strategy that aims to block China's economic access to the Strait of Malacca.
The tactics were tested by the US military during the Valiant Shield exercise held in the western Pacific Ocean in mid September this year. They were described as concepts rather than a strategy, aimed at increasing the military's "anti-access, area-denial" capability and enabling them to reenter international waters and airspace if they were blocked. Although the US defense department carefully left China out of its 2013 summary of the tactics, they were considering a measure to contain China's increasing hostility.
TX Hamas, a retired Marine colonel and a researcher at National Defense University, argued that the tactics failed to recognize that the US military cannot find and attack China's solid-fueled missiles and mobile missile launchers in time and that the tactics could ultimately lead to a nuclear war. He proposed blocking China's access to the Malacca Strait to minimize conflict with China.
It would take only 13-15 Marine teams to keep 800 Chinese ships from importing or exporting goods through Chinese ports in the Strait of Malacca, said the researcher, who thinks the measures could effectively "strangle" China but allow the Chinese Communist government not to lose face. He argued that Beijing will buckle because the country will "need the rest of the ocean."
China's neighbors within the blocked regions will not be happy with the measures, some people argued. Analysts cited by Stars and Stripes said any conflict involving the world's two largest economies is "inherently unpredictable."
The translated article was ranked the fourth most read piece on Huanqiu after two pieces on Hong Kong's Occupy Central protest and one on a Kunming police officer killed by Vietnamese nationals as of Tuesday afternoon. More than 1,000 Chinese internet users viewed or commented on the article.
