A senior Chinese military officer who spoke at a conference in Beijing on Saturday urged the Chinese navy to use force to counter US activities in the South China Sea.
The People's Liberation Army Air Force colonel commandant argued that the Chinese navy should ram US Navy warships that try to conduct freedom-of-navigation operations in "Chinese waters" in the South China Sea, Taiwan News reported.
Such an aggressive action would certainly constitute an escalation after an incident in September in which a Chinese navy destroyer nearly collided with a US warship in the South China Sea.
The South China Sea is a powder keg, and one senior Chinese military officer seems interested in lighting the fuse.
Dai Xu, a People's Liberation Army Air Force colonel commandant and the president of China's Institute of Marine Safety and Cooperation, suggested at a conference in Beijing on Saturday that the Chinese navy should use force to counter US freedom-of-navigation operations in the South China Sea, Taiwan News reported.
Taiwan News cited a report from Global Times, the nationalist, state-backed Chinese tabloid that hosted the conference, that quoted him as saying: "If the US warships break into Chinese waters again, I suggest that two warships should be sent: one to stop it, and another one to ram it ... In our territorial waters, we won't allow US warships to create disturbance."
Dai, known for his hawkish rhetoric, argued that the US Navy's operations are provocations aimed at undermining China's sovereignty rather than an attempt to ensure freedom of navigation in international waters. The US Navy regularly sails destroyers and cruisers past Chinese-occupied territories in the South China Sea, while US Air Force bombers tear past on routine overflights that often ruffle Beijing's feathers.
In the latest operation, in late November, the US Navy sent the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville to challenge China's claims near the Paracel Islands.
