Washington and Beijing’s conflict growing over missile defense

Posted on : 2014-06-09 11:39 KST Modified on : 2014-06-09 11:39 KST
China objecting to far-reaching detection system that would include parts of its territory
 Sept. 2013. (US Missile Defense Agency)
Sept. 2013. (US Missile Defense Agency)

By Kim Oi-hyun, staff reporter

The faceoff between Washington and Beijing over US missile defense deployment on the Korean Peninsula is intensifying.

While the issue is a longstanding one between the two powers, it is igniting once again as their 2010 conflict threatens to replay itself.

The US has been stoking the embers on the Korean Peninsula deployment issue since late May. A May 27 article in the Wall Street Journal quoted Defense Department officials as saying a site survey had been conducted for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, the core component of missile defense. Since then, the possibility of missile defense being deployed in South Korea has repeatedly surfaced in public debate, triggering a strong response from China.

On May 29, China’s state-run Xinhua News agency published what amounted to an ultimatum. “South Korea will sacrifice its fast-developing relations with China if it should be seduced into the defense network, ignoring the protests of the largest economy in Asia,” the article read.

The chief reason for China’s objections is the military threat that missile defense entails. While Washington’s outward justification for missile defense on the Korean Peninsula is the North Korean missile threat, Beijing’s fear is that it is actually targeting China. A particular concern is the high-performance radar included in THAAD (TPY-2, a kind of X-band radar), which has a detection radius of over 1,000 km. If deployed in South Korea, it could be used to detect warship, missile, and fighter plane activities in parts of China near the Korean Peninsula, including Shandong, Liaoning, Jilin, and Shanghai - and even Beijing.

“The US is pointing to North Korea and saying missile defense needs to be deployed on the Korean Peninsula for regional peace and stability, but from China’s standpoint, it can’t help raising serious questions about Washington’s sincerity, given that it hasn’t shown much determination with the six-party talks on the nuclear issue,” said Peace Network director Cheong Wook-sik on June 8.

Experts said the recently intensifying conflict between the US and China was the real reason for Washington pushing Beijing’s buttons on an issue it knows is sensitive. The US’s judgment appears to be that China has been acting aggressively in Asia since declaring a new Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the East China Sea last year that includes the Senkaku (Diaoyu in Chinese) Islands, the subject of a dispute with Japan. Beijing’s decision to start petroleum drilling in the Spratly Islands (known as the Xisha Islands in China and the Hoang Sa Islands in Vietnam) on June 3 - just after US President Barack Obama wrapped up a visit to four Asian countries - was seen by Washington as an attempt to build independent influence in Asia. The islands in question are currently the subject of a territorial dispute with Vietnam.

“It’s been some time now since China started declaring its key interests in Asia and taking strong action, while the US hasn’t done anything in terms of action,” said one South Korean expert on condition of anonymity.

“It’s a situation now where it’s obliged to take some kind of action as a show of trust to its friends and allies,” the expert explained.

The situation unfolding now is reminiscent of the conflict that occurred in 2010 when the US, responding to the sinking of South Korea’s ROKS Cheonan corvette, pressured China with the possibility of deploying its USS George Washington aircraft carrier into the West (Yellow) Sea, where it would be capable of detection as far as Beijing.

 

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