U.S. military officials repeatedly talk of routine patrols to support a “free and open Indo-Pacific,” but the reality is increasingly difficult amid the worst tensions in Taiwan since 1996, according to diplomats, military aides and security analysts. . US officials told Reuters this week they did not want to escalate matters with unnecessarily provocative deployments before House Speaker Pelosi – an outspoken critic of China and the third-highest-ranking US politician – landed in Taipei on Tuesday in an Air Force One plane. USA. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register And they’re sticking to that approach as the Chinese military begins live-fire drills in the waters surrounding, and somewhat dividing, Taiwan’s territory, they say. “We can’t control Pelosi’s travels, but we can control how we react,” said a defense official. The US Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii did not immediately respond to questions from Reuters about its actions and strategies. The plane carrying Pelosi and her congressional delegation skirted the South China Sea – and its fortified islands – as it took off from Singapore on Tuesday, taking a longer route over the island of Borneo and the eastern side of the Philippines. “The natural flight path would be over the South China Sea, but the place is now full of radar, sensors and jamming equipment on China’s island bases, so it’s something to avoid under Pelosi,” the adviser said security Alexander Neill based in Singapore. . “The way things are going we can see that the goal here is to avoid uncontrolled escalations.” After establishing facilities in the disputed Paracel and Spratlys archipelagos, Chinese coast guard vessels, warships and aircraft regularly patrol deep in the maritime heartland of Southeast Asia, often overshadowing US and other navies. China’s military modernization in recent decades means some security analysts say it would be unthinkable for US aircraft carriers to challenge Chinese forces in the seas around Taiwan the way they did a quarter-century ago. At the time, an aircraft carrier was transiting the Taiwan Strait as another sailed near the end of days of Chinese missile launches and military exercises as Beijing protested Taiwan’s first direct presidential election. More than half of the U.S. Navy’s 111 ships in combat power are now under the Japan-based Seventh Fleet’s sphere of responsibility that straddles the western Pacific and Indian oceans, according to tracking by the independent U.S. Naval Institute. The massive deployment of ships off Chinese shores is another issue, given China’s stockpile of advanced cruise and ballistic missiles and its extensive surface fleet, regional security analysts say. Four powerful ships – the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli and the guided-missile cruiser USS Antietnam are east of Taiwan, Reuters confirmed. Another attack ship – which also carries F-35 fighter jets – is in port near Japan. read more Some security analysts say it was highly likely that US attack submarines were also near such a formation. The passage of the Reagan task force was watched especially closely by regional security analysts in the days leading up to Pelosi’s mission. Radio Free Asia last month reported that it was due to arrive at the central Vietnamese port of Danang in July after patrols in the southern South China Sea near China’s fortifications in the Spratlys. Diplomats familiar with the route said the strike team turned around and instead headed for a five-day stopover in Singapore starting July 22. The move came as China began exercises between July 16 and 20 surrounding its bases further north in the Paracel Islands, east of Danang, covering 100,000 square kilometers, local maritime authorities said. Neither U.S. nor Vietnamese officials have commented on the change or the reason, but a U.S. Navy official told Reuters this week that schedules “often change” without confirmation or notice. The Reagan later headed through the narrow seaports of the Philippine archipelago before reaching waters west of Taiwan, according to an official US Navy Facebook page. Singapore-based security researcher Collin Koh said the passage through the Philippines’ San Bernadino Strait by an aircraft carrier was unusual, instead of sailing north between the Philippines and China’s southern coast. “I think it shows some carefully calibrated deployments, designed not to unnecessarily provoke China, even as they make sure they move where they need to.” Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reporting by Greg Torode in Hong Kong and Idrees Ali in Washington. additional reporting by Marius Zaharia. Edited by Lincoln Feast. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
