Is China "String of Pearls" a Threat?

Is China "String of Pearls" a Threat?

HONOLULU — The San Diego-based aircraft carrier Carl Vinson docked in Pearl Harbor last week, on its way home from a one-of-a-kind deployment that included the burial at sea of Osama bin Laden.

With its recent history, this ship’s presence at the site of the attack that launched the United States into World War II represents a good jumping-off point from the terrorism decade into what some are calling the Pacific Century.

While the United States has been focused on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001, the rise of China’s economic power has spurred a modernization of the Chinese military that is making its neighbors in Asia — some of whom the United States is pledged to protect — nervous.

Citing deterrence as one reason, the Pentagon is shifting the Navy’s focus to the Pacific, basing six of its 11 aircraft carriers in the region along with 60 percent of its helicopters.

Despite that, the United States finds itself defending its ability to do so, given the deep economic malaise of the past three years.

“Sustaining this forward military presence and commitments is costly, and cannot be disentangled from the wider discussions of the U.S. fiscal predicament in general,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said at the June 4 Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

In Hawaii, where the United States has military commands and think tanks devoted to Pacific geopolitics, scholars are debating not whether America should maintain its presence in Asia, but how and in what configuration.

“The People’s Republic of China’s stated goal of a defense-oriented military capability contributing to a peaceful and harmonious Asia appears incompatible with the extent of sophisticated weaponry China produces today,” Daniel Piccuta, foreign policy adviser to the U.S. Pacific Command, said in a speech last week at Honolulu’s East-West Center.

“Until it’s determined that China’s intent is indeed benign, it is all the more important that the U.S. continue to maintain the readiness of our forces.”

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