Defense Secretary Ash Carter used his commencement address at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis Friday to issue a sharp rebuke of China’s actions in the South China Sea, and to warn Beijing that it is on a path to build a “great wall of self-isolation.”
“China plays by its own rules,” a model he said that “is out of step with where the region wants to go, and it is counterproductive, far from a “win-win.”
Carter, addressing the 2016 graduating class of Navy and Marine officers, said the U.S. rejects China’s call to separate the issues involved in the South China Sea from the broader relationship between the two countries.
“The United States can do no such thing. China’s actions there challenge fundamental principles, and we’re not going to look the other way,” Carter said.
The tough talk comes as the U.S. defense secretary is about to embark on his fifth trip to the Asia-Pacific region, to discuss what Carter called China’s expansive and unprecedented actions.
“Its construction, and subsequent militarization, of artificial islands on disputed features far surpass all other land reclamation efforts by other nations there, combined. And when other aircraft, ships and even fishermen act in accordance with international law near these features, China tries to turn some of them away.”
In reasserting the right to freedom of navigation in international waters, Carter said the U.S. will continue to “fly, sail and operate” where law allows to uphold the rights of all nations.
The Navy, he told the newly minted officers, will play a vital role in checking Chinese ambitions, saying the Pentagon’s best weapons will be deployed to the Pacific theater.
“We’re sending stealthy F-35 fighters, P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, and our newest surface warfare ships, including our cutting-edge stealth destroyers,” he said.
And he told the graduating class, which includes for the first time 27 officers who majored in cyber warfare, that they would be involved in developing new and innovative operational concepts and high-tech weaponry, such as the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile, the Virginia-class submarines and new undersea drones.
“We are committed to ensuring that these core principles apply equally in the South China Sea as they do everywhere else, because only by ensuring that everyone plays by the same rules can we avoid the mistakes of the past,” Carter said.
