23/09/2024
this is my personal opinion,not the opinion of the US Army, for me, and to Fanell, a former U.S. Navy captain who served as director of Intelligence and Information Operations at the U.S. Pacific Fleet, believes the U.S. Navy must begin escorting Philippine craft when they begin the journey back to Sabina.
“America must enforce its words about a ‘free and open Indo-Pacific,’” he said. “If we do not, that phrase will become more hollow than it is today.”
China, in fact, sees America’s words as “hollow” as Beijing has been ignoring a series of pronouncements from Washington.
The Biden State Department, for instance, has issued a dozen written warnings — the last one on Aug. 31 — that the U.S. was willing to use force against China to discharge its obligations pursuant to Article IV of the mutual defense pact. President Biden has orally issued similar warnings, for instance on Oct. 25 of last year and April 11.
Despite these warnings, China has increased the tempo of provocative acts and its belligerence. At the moment, Beijing wants the world to see how aggressive Chinese forces are. China’s officials had to know there was a 60 Minutes crew on board the Philippine Coast Guard vessel they rammed.
In recent years, Xi Jinping has sponsored what has become known as “Wolf Warrior diplomacy,” and now he is going to even greater lengths to show off the ugly side of Chinese nationalism.
Chinese leaders are now looking for a fight. Xi has obviously decided to risk war with an American treaty ally, which means he is prepared to wage war against America.