US and Allies Should Work as a Team to Deter China in South China Sea_ International Military Strate

The U.S., the Philippines, Australia and Canada began their first joint exercises in the South China Sea today. The Philippines said Chinese forces till the multi-nation naval and air force exercises. Joining me now to explore the tensions in the South China Sea is retired Lieutenant Colonel Darren Gobb, who was a Black Hawk helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army and now an international military strategist. Darren, thank you so much for joining us. Great to see you again. Now, these are the first joint exercises by the four nations. What does this signal about the importance of the region? Hi, Tiffany. I think this clearly signals to China that multiple nations recognize the value of the South Asian trading routes, both land, sea and, or all three, land, sea and air. And the only way to truly combat what China is trying to do to control the waters is to work like a team in a coalition environment and be able to show China that we can not only deter them, but if necessary, we can defend it in a greater amount of depth or more rigorously if necessary. So, that is ultimately what China needs to see is no nation is out there working on its own, but we all have our eyes on them. Now, the Philippines said today that Chinese Navy ships tailed the joint military exercises. Given Beijing's more aggressive actions in the region, how should we read this move from Beijing? I would call it mostly typical Beijing and looking more like the Cold War tactics that we saw in the 70s, 80s and on is navies tended to kind of get up close to each other and figure out what they were trying to do. One of the biggest differences here, though, is that China clearly just outright claims these waters as their own. So, anybody operating in many of these areas is going to get tailed closely by the Chinese. It partly is as a threat, but partly as an intelligence collection, just so they can see how we or our allies might fight either separately or together. So, as this develops, I would anticipate they'll continue to be fairly aggressive because ultimately it's going to come down to Xi Jinping thinks he has some sort of his own version of manifest destiny with the reunification of China, as he would describe it. And as you mentioned, the Chinese regime claims this sea as its own. Despite a ruling that this claim has no basis in international law, what should Western allies and partners do to ensure stability and peace in the region? Well, first of all, they need to exert their influence collectively and not individually because we're all stronger together. It sounds cliche, but it is true. And at a time when the United States is dealing with multiple different fires around the world, not only the Ukraine-Russia conflict still going on, what we all see happening currently in the Middle East and what it could turn into, this requires that we work even more with our allies. And that is the biggest message we can send China. This is not just America against China, potentially. This is Western nations as well as allies throughout the Pacific who recognize the threat and will not put up with it. Expanding on that, this comes as the U.S. Navy is focusing more on the Middle East and the conflicts there. Now, Darren, we've spoken before about the Chinese regime's goal of involving the U.S. in four overseas wars, one with a terrorist group so that the U.S. military will be stretched too thin. Is that what we are seeing here? I think it is in some form, whether it's intentional or just that's what is happening. But to me, when you put all the pieces together, going back to not only the election of the Biden administration, but our failure in Kabul, the continuing crisis in Russia, Ukraine and in the Middle East now, you can see this burgeoning reality of America embroiling ourselves in multiple conflicts around the world where we haven't really stopped some time and asked, what is our strategic goal? What are we trying to get at? Because what China wants to really do or would take advantage of is overwhelming the system with specifically the United States at the middle of it to get us involved in too many things, not only with our manpower and some of our systems, but the logistics behind all of those systems that make them work from weapons and ammunition to fuel. It's all there. So hopefully some of these conflicts will tame down. But unfortunately, the way I see it going right now, it doesn't seem like anybody's trying to slow it down. On that note, a recent congressional report found that the U.S. military is ill-equipped to confront the threat of Russia and China. Given that, what do you see as the next steps the U.S. must take to avoid being taken by surprise by the Chinese regime? Well, first of all, I think they better recognize the fact that, yes, to a point we've been severely hampered in a lot of different ways with the military, but the American military is still the best military force this world has ever seen. And we can make a lot of mistakes, but we're going to learn fairly quickly if we absolutely have to, and we will. One of their concerns, though, is, of course, whether or not America soon has a different commander-in-chief in the administration that has been much more effective in diplomacy and economics before trying to engage the military. So I think that's ultimately what a lot of these nations who are our adversaries, or however you want to describe that, are seeing us as. It's a window of opportunity. They got to take advantage of it because things might change. Darren Gobb, international military strategist and retired lieutenant colonel. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks, Tiffany. Have a good night.