China is also facing the military threat of the superpower, the United States, and its warships and planes are constantly engaging in so-called freedom of navigation against China in the South and East China Seas, and constantly approaching China's coastline to carry out military reconnaissance activities, even approaching China's territorial waters less than 100 kilometers. In such a difficult and complicated situation, I believe that our army's combat readiness, countermeasures, and determination and ability to defend our territorial waters and national territory are also questions that all Chinese are very concerned about and want to know the answer. Today, we focus on the 2016 South China Sea conflict that almost led to a naval war between China and the United States, and the outcome of the conflict, and the answers we want are all in it.
The historical background of the Sino-US conflict in the South China Sea, China's South China Sea, due to historical reasons, has been in turmoil here for a period of time, but with the joint efforts of China and the neighboring countries in the South China Sea, it has been relatively calm for a long time, and the relations between China and ASEAN are also developing steadily. However, such a good development trend has made a foreign country 108,000 miles away from the South China Sea feel unhappy, and you are getting along so well, how can I be embarrassed by this super power? We must find ways to make it possible for China and ASEAN, especially the stakeholders in the South China Sea, to fight again. Thus, a vicious conspiracy was launched. At the behest of the United States, an extraterritorial superpower, and under the specific operation of then Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, the anti-China vanguard, the Filipinos initiated the so-called South China Sea arbitration.
On January 22, 2013, the Philippines formally submitted an "arbitration" request to the United Nations Tribunal for the Law of the Sea against China. In June 2013, the Philippines established a five-member China-Philippines Arbitration Tribunal for the South China Sea Dispute, despite China's strong opposition. In response to the arbitration farce initiated by the Philippines, the Chinese side does not recognize the jurisdiction of the Permanent Court of Arbitration over the case, and also refuses to accept any form of settlement proposal by the Philippines on the case. The attitude of "not participating, not accepting, and not admitting" has been adopted, which means that if you make trouble with you, I will watch the play, and it is just a play, and I will not admit it, what can you do about it! This so-called "Sino-Philippine Arbitration Tribunal for South China Sea Disputes" is actually a grass-roots team, and since China opposes and does not participate, all the costs are borne by the Philippine side.
The process of the South China Sea arbitration took a tortuous course until July 12, 2016, when the so-called Hague International Court of Arbitration issued a "final ruling" on the South China Sea arbitration, ruling in favor of the Philippines, rejecting the "nine-dash line" of China's claims in the South China Sea, and declaring that China has no "historic ownership" of the South China Sea. On July 12, 2016, the Taiwan authorities issued a statement refusing to accept the "arbitration result" and asserting that they have rights under international law and the law of the sea over Nanhai Zhudao and its related waters. The US military threat to pressure China to go to war on the outcome of the Fan Nanhai arbitration case was expected, but it was just a piece of waste paper for the Chinese. However, in order to pressure the Chinese to accept this so-called arbitration, the United States, the extraterritorial superpower, with its world's super-military strength, tried to militarily pressure China to accept arbitration.
In March 2016, the Philippines opened five military bases near the South China Sea for the use of the U.S. military. In early June, the USS Ronald Reagan and USS Stennis aircraft carrier battle groups, including frigates, missile destroyers, and more than 10 warships, 150 warplanes of various types, and more than 12,000 soldiers, sailed into the South China Sea in a mighty manner and set up battle formations. On the one hand, it will encourage the Philippines and the arbitral tribunal to boldly arbitrate, and on the other hand, once the outcome of the arbitration is unfavorable to China, it will force China to swallow the bitter fruit of arbitration, and the outcome of the arbitration does not need to be guessed, because it is directed by the Americans. On 9 May, Harris, a hawkish four-star Japanese-American commander of the US Pacific Fleet, sent the USS William Lawrence missile destroyer into China's 12-nautical-mile territorial waters at the same time as he sent the USS William Lawrence missile destroyer into China's 12-nautical-mile territorial waters.
But the Americans think too simply, Harris takes it for granted, they think that the Chinese are frightened, they forget the war that took place in the 50s of the 20 th century, and they also forget that today's China is no longer the era when foreigners can make the Chinese submit by casually erecting a few cannons, Harris's war clamor can only scare those weak and small countries, and it is not good for China! Chairman Mao said that strategically despising the enemy and tactically attaching importance to the enemy. In the face of the madness of the US military, we naturally have to take countermeasures. On July 3, China's Sanya Maritime Safety Administration in Hainan Province issued a brief message: "From 8 a.m. on July 5 to 8 a.m. on July 11, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) will conduct military exercises in the waters of the Xisha Islands south of Hainan Island." "Note that July 12 is the day when the so-called Hague Arbitral Tribunal publishes its results, and our exercise ends on the 11th. Yang Yujun, a spokesman for China's Ministry of National Defense, has publicly stated that "Chinese soldiers are not frightened" and that "when friends come, they have good wine, and when jackals come, they have shotguns."
On 5 July, at a Sino-US think tank dialogue on the South China Sea issue held in Washington, D.C., then-State Councilor Dai Bingguo said forcefully: "The arbitration result is nothing remarkable, but it is just a piece of waste paper! No one or any country can force China to enforce the ruling, and even if all 10 US aircraft carrier battle groups sail into the South China Sea, they will not be able to frighten the Chinese!" To say that this dialogue meeting is a dialogue, in fact, there is also the meaning that the Americans want to probe the tone of the Chinese, but we did not give the Americans a chance, because they saw our determination, confidence and ability to safeguard national interests. On 5 July, the day Dai Bingguo delivered his speech in the United States, our military's military exercise in the South China Sea also kicked off, which is also where Dai Bingguo's tough attitude in his speech lies. As the saying goes, don't expect diplomats to get what they can't get on the battlefield.
The background of this military exercise, as we have already said, is very unusual, in addition to expressing its attitude towards the upcoming South China Sea arbitration case, it is also a tough answer to Harris's war clamour. In terms of the composition of the units participating in the exercise, in addition to the elite warships of the three major fleets of the Chinese Navy, China's strategic air force and strategic rocket force also joined the combat sequence, which is very rare in the history of China's military exercise, and it can be seen that the severity of the situation at that time was beyond the imagination of ordinary people.
In terms of the main navy in the South China Sea, we participated in the exercise with more than 100 warships of various types, including the Type 052B destroyer 168 Guangzhou, the three latest Type 052D destroyers of the Chinese Navy at that time, the 172 Kunming, the 173 Changsha and 174 Hefei ships, the Type 054A multipurpose missile frigate, the 574 Sanya warship, and the 052C destroyer and the Type 056 frigate, which included almost all the main forces of the three fleets at that time. Remember the names of the Navy's surface ships: Kunming, Changsha, Hefei, Lanzhou, Guangzhou, Ningbo, Shenyang, Hengyang, Yueyang, Yuncheng, Sanya, Suqian, Luzhou, Chaozhou, Huizhou, and so on.
In the depths of the vast sea, our strategic nuclear submarine 094A has been quietly staying in a corner that no one knows at this time, the 094A nuclear submarine can carry 12 Julang 2 ballistic missiles, and its missiles have a maximum range of up to 14,000 kilometers. At sea, our army is waiting for us, and in the air, we are not absent. At the scene of the military exercise, dozens of fighters, including the H-6, J-7, and J-11B, roared past, and all carried out precision strikes and targeted killings.
On the footage of the exercise broadcast by CCTV, the DF-21D missiles and Dongfeng-26 missiles of the "Dongfeng Express," known as the killers of aircraft carriers, were dragged by dozens of missile tractors and drove quickly on the highway deep in the mountains thousands of miles away. In order to cope with a possible war, many reservists returned to their units after receiving orders, and the soldiers who were about to retire postponed their retirement, and the soldiers who participated in the war wrote suicide notes. In terms of the command system, four PLA generals were dispatched to directly command the front-line, which is also unprecedented in the history of China's military exercises!
It can be said that in this military exercise, the types of services and weapons dispatched by China have reached the highest level of front-line command, and they have reached the extreme of peacetime. There are various indications that on the South China Sea issue, China has demonstrated its determination and will to resolutely safeguard its sovereignty and accomplish its success in one battle.
Beginning with China's South China Sea exercise on 5 July, the two US aircraft carrier formations deployed in the South China Sea have lost their traces, the news is no longer reported, planes no longer take off and land, radio is silent, and the aircraft carrier battle group has set up a battle formation, that is to say, the US military has hidden the coordinates of the aircraft carrier and other warships, and has truly entered a wartime state! The life-and-death struggle between China and the United States in the South China Sea has really entered the most dangerous and tense moment at this moment! At this moment, the comparison is courage! Because only those who are not afraid of death deserve to live!
One photo conveys a huge amount of information, and the Americans are instigated, let's run away, and in the same way, our exercise was not hidden, and our CCTV broadcast many pictures of the exercise in an extremely high-profile manner. In addition to the rare appearance of an aircraft carrier killer on television, the news picture of the H-6K cruising over Scarborough Shoal outside the scope of the military exercise has also appeared in front of the world! Don't underestimate this, just as the so-called layman looks at the excitement, and the insider looks at the doorway, the Americans have read the message from this photo, and the coordinates of your aircraft carrier battle group are already under our control! If you dare to disagree, the Dongfeng 21D will treat you to a good pot.
This is an unbearable burden for the US military, which adheres to the principle of "discovery and destruction." So, as a result, you can also think that on July 12, the US military chose to stay away from the fire circle of the Chinese army, and the two aircraft carrier battle groups that had flaunted their might in the South China Sea for more than a month fled to the depths of the ocean, because it was safer there, and the lives of the US military were also fate. This is also the first time after World War II that the almost invincible US aircraft carrier had to retreat in a hurry due to the exposed coordinates.
Harris, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, the closest moment to war in the Sino-US conflict in the South China Sea, can be said to be an out-and-out fanatical warmonger against China, except for the sentence "Be prepared to go to war with China tonight!" Fortunately, the captain who received Harris's order to fire felt that things were not so simple, and highly suspected that the order was given by Harris without authorization, so he hurriedly asked the White House for instructions, and found that sure enough, the president did not authorize the attack, so he refused him. It can be said that it was the captain's information confirmation at the critical moment that avoided an imminent hot war between China and the United States in the South China Sea, which is not only a blessing for China, but also a blessing for the US military. Harris, the madman who overstepped his authority and gave the order, almost gave Obama a big leak.
The final outcome of the conflict between China and the United States in the South China Sea The Americans ran away at the most critical moment, the sabre-rattling scene was gone, and the nerves of people who were concerned about this conflict were finally relaxed. Aquino III, the initiator, also stepped down, and Duterte, the new president of the Philippines, who had been in office for less than a month, also made a 180-degree turn in his attitude toward China, and he visited China in October of that year. Later, everyone knew that the Philippines' relations with the United States were getting worse and better, and its relations with China were getting better and better. So far, the conflict between China and the United States in the South China Sea triggered by the South China Sea arbitration case has ended with China's complete victory, and the South China Sea has returned to its former tranquility. The conflict in the South China Sea ended silently, the world was closed in the ghost gate, and those ordinary people are still living as usual. Today, the Americans are restless again, and what awaits them is the strong will of the Chinese people and the iron fist of the Chinese soldiers! Try to see who is in the South China Sea today!