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Liu Zhen

China is stepping up preparedness for a possible military conflict with the US as the Donald Trump presidency has increased the risk of hostilities breaking out, state media and military observers said.
Beijing is bracing itself for a possible deterioration in Sino-US ties, with a particular emphasis on maritime security.
The People’s Liberation Army said in a commentary on its official website last Friday, the day of Trump’s inauguration, that the chances of war have become “more real” amid a more complex security situation in Asia Pacific.
The commentary written by an official at the national defence mobilisation department in the Central Military Commission said the call for a US rebalancing of its strategy in Asia, military deployments in the East and South China Seas and the instillation of a missile defence system in South Korea were hot spots getting closer to ignition.


Will Donald Trump aggravate the China-US arms race?
“‘A war within the president’s term’ or ‘war breaking out tonight’ are not just slogans, they are becoming a practical reality,” it said.
The official People’s Daily said in another commentary on Sunday that China’s military would conduct exercises on the high seas regardless of foreign provocations. China’s sole aircraft carrier Liaoning passed through the narrow Taiwan Strait last month.
The commentary referred to remarks by the US secretary of state Rex Tillerson hopeful that the US should stop China’s access to artificial islands it has built in disputed areas of the South China Sea.
New White House spokesman Sean Spicer told a press conference on Monday that the US would prevent China from taking over territory in international waters in the South China Sea.
With their threats to China, Trump and Tillerson are making rookie blunders that will only hurt US credibility
Spicer told the press “the US is going to make sure that we protect our interests there,” when asked about US President Donald Trump’s position on the South China Sea. “It’s a question of if those islands are in fact in international waters and not part of China proper, then yeah, we’re going to make sure that we defend international territories from being taken over by one country,” he said.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying responded by telling the US “to be cautious in what it says and does, so as to avoid harming the peace and stability in the region.”
The Chinese military is constantly prepared for possible military conflict whoever serves as US president, but Donald Trump’s possible “extreme approach” against China was dangerous, according to analysts.
Ian Storey, a senior fellow at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, said some of the comments from Trump’s key advisors and appointees suggest that the US may pursue a more hardline policy against Beijing in the South China Sea over the next four years

“As it’s highly unlikely that China will compromise its sovereignty claims in the face of US pressure, we can be sure that the dispute will increasingly become a risky point of contention between Beijing and Washington,” he said.
The comments come as President Xi Jinping is overseeing massive reforms within China’s military to improve its fighting capabilities. A huge reshuffle is also underway in the military’s top brass. Vice-Admiral Shen Jinlong, commander of the South Sea Fleet, is to replace retiring Admiral Wu Shengli as chief of the PLA Navy.
Admiral named to head PLA’s new Southern Theatre Command
Meanwhile, Vice-Admiral Yuan Yubai, the former North Sea Fleet commander, has been promoted to head the Southern Theatre Command, which focuses on the South China Sea. “Promoting naval officers to command theatres is aimed at utilising them to the maximum and getting ready to win wars,” Song Zhongping, a military affairs commentator at Phoenix TV, said.
The navy has been the focus of recent developments within the PLA, with massive investment and the construction of large numbers of ships, Song said.
China is involved in other disputes beyond the South China Sea, particularly with Taiwan. Sovereignty disputes with Japan in the East China Sea and concerns over the deployment of the missile shield in South Korea are other potential flashpoints.


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Donald Trump

China ‘steps up preparedness for possible military conflict with US’

Donald Trump’s election as US president has increased the risk of hostilities breaking out, according to Chinese state media and analysts

FILE - In this Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2016, file photo, Chinese Navy officials stand in front of the ship Daqing, in San Diego. China has appointed the former head of its southern fleet as the new commander of its increasingly powerful navy. Vice Adm. Shen Jinlong takes command of a sprawling force that is growing in both size and modernity as China seeks to assert its regional maritime claims and project strength far from its shores. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

A file picture of China's sole aircraft carrier Liaoning taking part in a drill last month in the South China Sea. Photo: Reuters

Will Donald Trump aggravate the China-US arms race?

Both countries have been flexing their military muscles in the Western Pacific

FILE - In this undated file photo released by Xinhua News Agency, a Chinese H-6K bomber patrols the islands and reefs in the South China Sea. A U.S. think tank says recent images appear to show that China has installed anti-aircraft and anti-missile weapons on its man-made islands in the South China Sea. The Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a report this week that the anti-aircraft guns and a close-in weapons systems designed to guard against missile attack have been placed on all seven of the islands that China has created by piling sand on top of coral reefs. (Liu Rui/Xinhua via AP, File)

Crew members aboard the VOS Raasay recover U.S. and British Royal Navy ocean gliders taking part in the Unmanned Warrior exercise off the northwest coast of Scotland on October 8, 2016. A similar unmanned underwater vehicle was seized by the Chinese Navy in international waters off the coast of the Philippines on December 15, 2016. Courtesy Santiago Carrizosa/U.S. Navy/Handout via REUTERSATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. EDITORIAL USE ONLY.

A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor is launched during a successful intercept test, in this undated handout photo provided by the U.S. Department of Defense, Missile Defense Agency. THAAD provides the U.S. military a land-based, mobile capability to defend against short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, intercepting incoming missiles inside and outside the earth's atmosphere. REUTERS/U.S. Department of Defense, Missile Defense Agency/Handout via Reuters ATTENTION EDITORS - FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

China military

Admiral Harry Harris, head of the US Pacific Command, addresses the Lowy Institute in Sydney on December 14, 2016. The United States will keep challenging Beijing's "assertive, aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea", the US Pacific commander said December 14, as tensions between the two powers rise over comments by Donald Trump. / AFP PHOTO / Peter PARKS

This undated picture shows a nuclear-powered submarine of the People's Liberation Army Navy's North Sea Fleet preparing to dive into the sea. Beijing has put its nuclear-powered submarine fleet on public display, with state media on October 29, 2013 touting the move as unprecedented and necessary to show other countries China's strike capabilities as territorial tensions mount. CHINA OUT AFP PHOTO / AFP PHOTO / AFP

In this photo provided by China's Xinhua News Agency, the J-20 stealth fighter jet flies at the China's International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2016. China's J-20 stealth fighter has made its public debut at Airshow China in the southern city of Zhuhai in the latest sign of the growing sophistication of the country's military technology. (Li Gang/Xinhua via AP)

China's Liaoning aircraft carrier with accompanying fleet conducts a drill in an area of South China Sea, in this undated photo taken December, 2016. REUTERS/Stringer ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. EDITORIAL USE ONLY. CHINA OUT.

(FILES) This file photo taken on July 12, 2016 shows a Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II taking part in a flying display at the Farnborough Airshow, south west of London. The US Marine Corps said January 10, 2017 it has sent a squadron of F-35B fighters to Japan, marking the first operational overseas deployment for the controversial jet that is under scrutiny from President-elect Donald Trump. The planes' deployment to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni on Honshu Island marks a major milestone for the F-35, which has been bedeviled by technical glitches and soaring cost overruns. / AFP PHOTO / ADRIAN DENNIS

Two security guards stand in front of a poster of China’s Shenyang J/FC-31 stealth fighter at the Zhuhai air show in November 2014. Photo: Dickson Lee

SCMP

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China

Diplomacy

Donald Trump’s election as US president has increased the risk of hostilities breaking out, according to Chinese state media and analysts
