Chinese state media on Tuesday rather unsubtly decided this would be a good time to chat with a panel of “experts” about the possibility of using an electromagnetic pulse weapon (EMP) against American ships that enter portions of the South China Sea illegally claimed by Beijing.
The timing suggests it was a bit of saber-rattling by a Communist Party nervous about its power and prestige after the Wuhan virus disaster, but some degree of escalation in the South China Sea has long been a concern for the U.S. Navy and ships from across the free world.
To put it bluntly,
an EMP strike on U.S. warships would involve
detonating a small nuclear warhead above them,
but China’s state-run Global Times threw in some speculation about “low-energy laser devices” to keep their saber from rattling too loudly:
To counter US’ repeated trespasses into Chinese territorial waters, the Chinese military has the option of using new approaches, including the deployment of electromagnetic weapons, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and commentator, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
Firing at US warships is not a good choice unless the US fires first, and that would result in the start of a China-US military conflict, Song said, noting that bumping into US ships might also not be a good counter, as lessons have been learned from the Black Sea bumping incident between the Soviet Union and US in 1988.
But the use of electromagnetic weapons, including low-energy laser devices, could be viable, as they can temporarily paralyze US ships’ weapon and control systems without visible conflict but can send a strong warning, according to Song.
Electromagnetic weapons can emit electromagnetic waves that can potentially jam electronic devices of target vessels and will not cause casualties, military observers said.
The US accused a Chinese destroyer of using lasers on February 17 on its patrol aircraft near Guam, even though it was the US aircraft that had initially conducted repeated close-in reconnaissance that interrupted the Chinese fleet’s normal navigation and training. This is a good example and could be applied more, Song said.
This is almost as dishonest a framing of the February laser incident, and others like it, as the Chinese fairy tale about a U.S. Army lab developing the coronavirus. The Chinese laser attack on a U.S. Navy aircraft flying over international waters on February 17 was unprovoked, unprofessional, unsafe, and a clear violation of both maritime law and safe-conduct policies for the region endorsed by Beijing.
These EMP threats were prompted by the most recent series of U.S. Freedom of Navigation operations (FONOP) in the South China Sea, which essentially involve sailing through waters claimed by China to demonstrate that international freedom of navigation will be protected. The Chinese are particularly exercised by the presence of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and its strike group in the region, and while the Global Times did not explicitly mention it, the USS Theodore Roosevelt’s visit to Vietnam was deeply troubling to Beijing.
“This is the third time in just a week US warships are known to have trespassed into the South China Sea: US guided missile destroyer McCampbell on March 10 trespassed into China’s territorial waters in the Xisha Islands, and amphibious assault ship America and littoral combat ship Gabrielle Giffords sailed in operations in the South China Sea on Friday,” the Global Times complained.
“Xisha Islands” is China’s name for the Paracel Islands, which the guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell sailed near on March 10. Vietnam and Taiwan both have claims in the Paracels. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) claimed it “warned” the American ship to leave, while the U.S. Navy said the ship completed its “security and stability operations” normally.
USS America and USS Gabrielle Giffords conducted joint operations in the South China Sea on Friday to test unified command and control and practice tactical maneuvers. The ships do not appear to have ventured into the waters claimed by China.
“By combining America’s lethality provided by the Navy-Marine Corps Team with the speed and maneuverability of a littoral combat ship, we’re forging new ways to operate together in one of the most important regions in the world,” Expeditionary Strike Group 7 commander Rear Adm. Fred Kacher said.
The PLA pulled a few deliberately provocative maneuvers of its own on Monday, sending a flight of warplanes across the Taiwan Strait in a rare night exercise. The Taiwanese scrambled their own fighters to “shadow, intercept, and disperse the Communist warplanes,” according to Taiwan’s defense ministry.
The South China Morning Postquoted analysts who said Beijing wanted to send one of its periodic threats to Taiwan while also demonstrating the coronavirus epidemic has not weakened the PLA:
“In addition to enhancing all-weather capability of its military fleet, the communist warplanes’ fly-by is aimed at sending out the message that it is business as usual with PLA war games despite the coronavirus outbreak in mainland China,” said Alexander Huang Chieh-cheng, a professor of international affairs and strategic studies at Tamkang University in Taipei.
He said the PLA’s night drill was also aimed at testing the response of forces such as the United States and telling them that the mainland’s air force can carry out night-time combat operations.
“Of course, it is also aimed at intimidating Taiwan,” Huang said.
The Global Timesportrayed the night exercise as a warning to Taiwan that will become more frequent if “secessionist forces remain stubborn and continue their secessionist activities.”
The Chinese state newspaper curiously quoted only Taiwanese sources about the incident, but slipped in a comment from an unnamed “military expert” who said Monday’s flight was unprecedented proof that the PLA “is fully capable of launching military operations on the island at any time of a day.”
Chinese military experts on Tuesday suggested the use of non-lethal electromagnetic weapons, including low-energy laser devices, in expelling US warships that have been repeatedly intruding into the South China Sea in the past week.
Ships from the Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier strike group and America amphibious assault ship expeditionary strike group sailed together in the South China Sea on Sunday for expeditionary strike force drills, the US Pacific Fleet said on its Twitter account on Monday.
This is the third time in just a week US warships are known to have trespassed into the South China Sea: US guided missile destroyer McCampbell on March 10 trespassed into China's territorial waters in the Xisha Islands, and amphibious assault ship America and littoral combat ship Gabrielle Giffords sailed in operations in the South China Sea on Friday.
To counter US' repeated trespasses into Chinese territorial waters, the Chinese military has the option of using new approaches, including the deployment of electromagnetic weapons, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and commentator, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
Firing at US warships is not a good choice unless the US fires first, and that would result in the start of a China-US military conflict, Song said, noting that bumping into US ships might also not be a good counter, as lessons have been learned from the Black Sea bumping incident between the Soviet Union and US in 1988.
But the use of electromagnetic weapons, including low-energy laser devices, could be viable, as they can temporarily paralyze US ships' weapon and control systems without visible conflict but can send a strong warning, according to Song.
Electromagnetic weapons can emit electromagnetic waves that can potentially jam electronic devices of target vessels and will not cause casualties, military observers said.
The US accused a Chinese destroyer of using lasers on February 17 on its patrol aircraft near Guam, even though it was the US aircraft that had initially conducted repeated close-in reconnaissance that interrupted the Chinese fleet's normal navigation and training. This is a good example and could be applied more, Song said.
The US side is using "freedom of navigation" as an excuse to repeatedly enter the South China Sea to flex its muscles and cause trouble, which are acts of hegemony that violate international law, threatening peace and stability in the region, People's Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command spokesperson Li Huamin said after the US naval activities on March 10, noting that the US warship was expelled by Chinese naval and aerial forces.
China has undisputed sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea and nearby waters, and the Chinese military remains highly vigilant at all times. It will take any necessary measure to safeguard national sovereignty, peace and stability in the South China Sea, Li said after that incident.
The PLA has yet to announce its response to the US activities on Friday and Sunday.
I hold Xi Jinping guilty of starting the coronavirus pandemic, which began in the Chinese city of Wuhan and has now caused thousands of deaths around the world and an economic recession that will ravage all of us for years. My accusation is well-founded and well-documented. Early last December, a young doctor at a Wuhan hospital discovered the first case of illness caused by a heretofore unknown virus. He immediately established the link with an earlier epidemic that had begun in the same place and under the same circumstances, in 2002–2003: SARS, a viral pneumonia. The doctor, Li Wenliang, 37 years old, who died in February from exposure to the patients whom he cared for, had immediately posted his diagnosis on the hospital’s internal website in order to inform his colleagues. He was called before a disciplinary council of the local Communist Party and forced to repent and confess, in writing, that he had spread rumors harmful to the glory of the Party. A month later—a month too late—after further suppressing evidence from brave medical professionals, the Party recognized the explosive nature of the epidemic, which could have been confined to Wuhan but was now spreading throughout China, and then the world.
What is Xi Jinping guilty of? Though he did not invent the ideology of the lie, which is the true Constitution of China’s Communist Party, he has considerably reinforced it since taking power. We must therefore consider that the Party bureaucrats, driven by fear and ambition, are chiefly servile agents. In a regime as centralized as China’s, there is only one undeniably guilty party—the president. We can be sure that Xi is aware of his responsibility, since he has launched a dual propaganda offensive aimed at the Chinese people and at the international community. The point was at first to persuade the Chinese people that they, led by the Party, were about to win a great victory against the epidemic, and that this victorious struggle was a model for the rest of the world. To transform defeats into victories is characteristic of totalitarian regimes.
The diplomatic offensive is bolder still. Party hardliners have threatened to cut off U.S. access to pharmaceuticals. They would have the world believe that the virus is not of Chinese origin, but was planted in Wuhan by the United States military. Here, again, we recognize a familiar method of totalitarian regimes: a very big lie leaves fewer traces than a little false witness. Chinese opinion having been muzzled, it’s hard to know what the people think, but social networks provide clues—contempt, hatred, and despondency in the face of Xi’s dictatorship.
Should we in the West remain spectators of the tragedy? We do not have the means to bring Xi before any international tribunal, but many Chinese, the first victims of this epidemic, would thank us if we referred him. Should we not thoroughly reconsider our relations with the Beijing dictatorship, at the level of governments, churches, media, and tourists? The looming economic recession illustrates how our dependence on Chinese suppliers was a poorly calculated risk; it is time to reroute our supply chains and to spread them around the world. It has been truly frightening in the current crisis to discover that most American medications are manufactured in China. (Legislation has been introduced in Washington to begin the process of repatriating American pharmaceutical manufacturing.)
Beyond such changes in economic strategy, which call for a new form of globalization, it is high time to denounce the threat posed by Xi and the Communist Party. Like useful idiots, we have not only helped the Party prosper but, even worse, we have given up on our humanitarian, democratic, and spiritual values in doing so. Some take this renunciation to be a form of respect for Chinese civilization, but they are wrong. The Chinese know what democracy is: Liu Xiaobo, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, died defending it. The Chinese know about God: several million are Christians and Muslims, while others are secretly loyal to China’s ancient religions, Buddhism and Taoism. We tremble at the prospect of recognition of the Chinese regime by the Vatican; this would be a pact with the devil. Let us, finally, dare to say it and to act accordingly: the Chinese Communist Party under Xi is America’s main military adversary, one that acts by espionage, by the ongoing conquest of the China Sea, and by the manipulation of North Korea’s puppet regime.
The time has come to say to Xi: “Enough!” In doing so, we will do right by ourselves and by hundreds of millions of Chinese, who will applaud.
Guy Sorman, a City Journal contributing editor and French public intellectual, is the author of many books, including Empire of Lies: The Truth about China in the Twenty-First Century.
