‘Grey zone’ tactics are raising risk of military conflict in the South China Sea, observers say

America’s freedom of navigation operations and drills in disputed waters designed to challenge China’s rise and excessive territorial claims, analyst says

And promises Washington makes to other nations in region could lead to an ‘unwanted conflict’ with Beijing, he says

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The US conducted at least five so-called freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea last year. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:00pm, 20 Oct 2019Updated: 6:31pm, 20 Oct 2019

The United States’ increased use of “grey zone” operations in the South China Sea to counter Beijing’s rise in the disputed region has significantly increased the chance of military conflict between the two powers, Chinese observers say.

In 2018, the US conducted at least five so-called freedom of navigation operations in the sea and more than 1,000 military flights over it, Chen Yong, an assistant research fellow with the Institute of International Relations at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said in a recently published academic paper.

On any given day, at least three US naval vessels could be found in the disputed waters, he said.

“As China’s military might increases, so the US will turn to ever more dangerous grey zone operations,” he said.

Grey zone is a term given to the state of being between war and peace, and in which a nation seeks to make political or territorial gains against another without resorting to actual combat.

On any given day, at least three US naval vessels can be found in the South China Sea, according to a Chinese researcher. Photo: AFP

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