Earlier this year, China's Coast Guard forced a Filipino fishing boat captain and crew away from Scarborough Shoal, which the United Nations International Tribunal has established as the territory of the Philippines (PDF), demanding that they dump their catch. Indeed, China's Coast Guard continues to use aggression and force to coerce and intimidate other nations—even in those other nations' territorial waters. China's Coast Guard also routinely forces collisions with Filipino fishing and supply vessels, and harasses other vessels in the South China Sea. China views these gray-zone tactics as a natural extension of national power, and its flagrant violation of international law will likely continue unless Indo-Pacific stakeholders begin to impose consequences for such actions.
Despite renewed emphasis by the Biden, Trump, and Obama administrations, America's commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific has struggled under Chinese pressure—including both gray-zone operations in East Asian waters and China's Belt and Road Initiative more broadly. Moreover, U.S. influence in the Indo-Pacific has waned, as evidenced by the fact that nations such as Kiribati, the Solomon Islands, and Nauru have recently switched their diplomatic recognition from U.S.-friendly Taiwan to China.…
The remainder of this commentary is available at warontherocks.com
Eric “Coop” Cooper is a senior policy researcher at RAND and a retired senior Coast Guard officer.
