U.S. hasn’t followed through with naval maneuvers meant to intimidate China, expert says

The Navy reportedly planned last year to make two freedom-of-navigation trips to the region per quarter. But Jeff Smith, the director of Asian Security Programs at the American Foreign Policy Council, said that in the past year, the U.S. has conducted only three operations: one in September, one in January and one in May.

“It’s been 140 days since we launched our last operation, so we are well behind schedule,” Smith said at an event hosted by the Center for the National Interest.

China has built up several man-made islands in the South China Sea, claiming territory as its own despite a panel at The Hague finding this summer that it had no legitimate territorial claims in the body of water. Photos show that China is building plane hangars on the islands, suggesting that they are planning to use them for military purposes.

In America’s most recent freedom-of-navigation operation, the destroyer William P. Lawrence sailed within 12 nautical miles of Fiery Cross Reef, drawing a rebuke from China.

Congressional critics of the administration’s strategy toward the Asia-Pacific have urged the military to conduct more frequent naval operations in the region.

“I continue to hope these operations will become so routine that China and other claimants will come to accept them as normal occurrences and releasing press statements to praise them will no longer be necessary,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said after the January operation near Triton Island.

Eric Gomez, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, said freedom-of-navigation operations should continue, but that they should not be a regular occurrence. Instead, he said the U.S. should conduct these types of operations only in response to overreaches by China, such as if the Chinese actually station military equipment on the Spratly Islands.

“If they do, I think that would be a perfect candidate for conducting a freedom-of-navigation operation,” Gomez said.