A Study On The Assessment Of And Policy Response To China's Sea Power In The American Strategic Community Since The Obama Administration

Since the beginning of the new century,the extraordinary significance of Sino-US relations at the bilateral,regional and global levels has largely determined the complexity of the process of Sino-US interaction and the unpredictability of the outcome of this interaction,both of which,with time passing by,will more be exemplified in the dimension of sea power.From the perspective of the strategic community of the United States,China's national development practice since the reform and opening up shows that China is speeding up its transition from a terrestrial power to a terrestrial-oceanic nation;put forward by China,the strategy of “building up a sea power” has undoubtedly strengthened the importance of sea power over land power in ensuring national security,development and prosperity for the moment,and in the long run,will bring about the possibility of China to become a truly regional,and even global sea power.The rise of China's sea power will become a key variable that will influence the future of Sino-US relations and the vital interests of the region,and this means that the development of China's sea power is becoming a “phenomenon” or a “problem”,which deserves serious attention from the US side.Once it fails in the strategic response,the United States will pay a price as heavy as the loss of its regional dominance.In view of the above,the strategic community of the United States believe that it is necessary to make objective and rational evaluation and judgment on the present situation and trend of China's sea power development.Once such evaluation and judgment are conducted,it is not advisable to overestimate risks and challenges faced by the United States,or to undervalue the examination of the core elements of China's sea power development that would probably make difference to the United States' national security and its leadership.The US side believes that at levels both strategic and practical,the rise of China's sea power is of great significance and far-reaching impact to the United States,which,for some time to come,will become the largest external impeding factor to the US in its shaping the regional strategy and maritime practice.From an universal perspective of national strategy establishment,it is quite logistically justifiable for China to develop its sea power given the status of its national modernization;In other words,China's strategic sea development plan,aimed at realizing the basic national security and basic national prosperity,has universal legitimacy and is the proper meaning for a country to seek the status of a powerful nation.To a great extent,such a plan is different from the exploration and practice of the ocean in the history of China,and it can fundamentally guarantee the stability and consistency of China'smarine strategic practice.From the perspective of geopolitical game,the US side believes that,with the continuous expansion of China's maritime interests,the original regional security order in East Asia formed by China and the United States,featured as a “terrestrial-oceanic binary separate” one,is being integrated into more elements of maritime power;China's maritime power and influence are rapidly entering the waters around East Asia and will extend to the wider sea over time.Given the distinct nature of its sea power,the United States is bound to be guarding and vigilant against this kind of maritime practice that has the potential of subverting the traditional regional geographical pattern,and thus tends to prefer a confronting strategic attitude to a compromising one.America's foreign policy,on that basis,would also lose proper flexibility.In addition,with the maritime interaction between the two sides being more frequent,it is inevitable for the risk of friction and confrontation to come.Consequently,the United States is faced with a great test on how to effectively control such risks and prevent them from escalating,or even endangering the US-led security order in East Asia.From the perspective of maritime power construction,the development of the navy,the core element of maritime power of emerging countries represented by China,is eroding the traditional maritime superiority of the United States.This will force the United States Navy to re-examine the strategic security environment it faces in the post-cold-war era and its responsibilities and roles,and to shift its strategic focus from non-State actors to State actors;oriented by such a strategy will the United States undertake the construction of its sea power and eventually realize the sea power strategic return—an ultimate strategic focus on potential challengers.Meanwhile,both the concept of sea power itself and its strategic connotation,in the era of globalization,have been enriched and expanded,and there has been a great change of the basic principle of sea power advocated by Alfred Thayer Mahan—it has no longer been viewed as a “law”for navies around the globe to obtain sea supremacy by the primary battle fleet.In fact,the increasingly close economic and trade ties among countries in the context of globalization and the advance in science and technology have greatly restricted the time and space dimensions of sea control.In this sense,military orientation is not the only driving force behind a battle for sea supremacy,and maritime security is more regarded as a global public property,which urges different nations to emphasize,concerning their strategic measures,more on cooperation over a sheer zero-sum game.In short,the US side believes,given all sorts of histories and real factor restrict,that the new round of maritime games between China and the United States and consequent power transfer can hardly go as smoothly as did thetransfer of maritime power between Britain and the United States more than half a century ago,and that friction and confrontation will be hardly absent from maritime interactions between the two countries in a long run.However,the US always believes that friction and confrontation do not necessarily lead to conflicts and wars,so the US should seek to reach a minimum understanding of maritime strategy with China,deal with differences and frictions effectively,and cooperate with China in non-traditional maritime security domains as much as possible,thus sharing in the cost of maintaining maritime public safety.For China,there are three perceptions for its maritime interaction with the US.First,China still takes the disadvantageous position in its maritime interaction with the US before its real rise as a regional maritime power.Despite the gap between the two sides being narrowed,the United States still enjoys regional maritime leadership in the foreseeable future.Second,embodying the common will of the whole nation,China's choice of developing maritime power has risen to the level of national strategy,and the construction of marine power will surely occupy a pivotal position in the course of the great national rejuvenation;however,due to the geographical environment in which it is located and the limitations of its national strategic objectives,China should still pursue a limited sea power aimed at safeguarding its own security and development interests,rather than competing with the United States for global maritime leadership.Third,the United States is still the most important external restrictive factor in China's maritime power development,and resultantly,the outcome of China's maritime interaction with the United States will greatly affect the peaceful rise of China.In this regard,it is quite a primary strategic option rather than a makeshift for China to seek a new model of maritime interaction with the United States,to build up a framework of regional maritime security cooperation and to minimize the obstruction and interference of the United States in the process of the construction of its maritime power and the expansion of its maritime interests.