Recently, China and the United States held the first telephone call between leaders of the theater in two years, and the news reports on our side were very simple, and only briefly mentioned that "the two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on issues of common concern." However, as the saying goes, "few words do a lot of things," there are still many places that deserve our attention and excavation.
[The leaders of the Chinese and US theaters have their first phone call in two years]
The first is the identity of the two sides of the call: Paparo, commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and Wu Yanan, commander of the Southern Theater of the People's Liberation Army. Among them, the latter is the Southern Theater, which is mainly responsible for maintaining stability in the South China Sea, while the former often does things to disturb the situation in the South China Sea. From this perspective, the content of the call was mainly focused on the South China Sea region.
It should be added that at present, there are four main communication channels between the Chinese and US militaries: high-level communication between the two militaries, a working meeting between the Ministry of National Defense, a meeting of the Maritime Military Security Consultative Mechanism, and a phone call between the leaders of the two military theaters. The peculiarity of the call between the leaders of the theater lies in the fact that it is a direct exchange between the commanders who directly control the operations of the front-line naval and air forces, and this kind of communication helps to reduce the "miscalculation" between the two armies.
Second, the background of this phone call is unusual, and the Chinese side has just issued an "ultimatum" to the Philippines. On the 10th of this month, the People's Daily, a state-run media outlet on the mainland, published a sharply and warning commentary on the Philippines' provocative actions in the South China Sea. The article clearly stated that the Philippine side has committed "risky infringements" in the name of "humanitarianism", which seriously violates China's sovereignty, seriously violates the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, undermines peace and stability in the South China Sea, and points out that China-Philippines relations have reached a "crossroads".
[The Philippines has made repeated provocations in the South China Sea]
The two "serious" mentions in succession illustrate the importance of the situation. Since April this year, the Philippine side has not stopped its small actions, first deliberately stranding its coast guard vessel at Xianbin Reef on the mainland, and relying on it for hundreds of days; Later, he sent elite troops with guns to force their way into Ren'ai Jiao on the mainland in the early hours of the morning; After the failure of the forced escape, it instigated Filipino fishermen to "take the lead" to deliver supplies to its stranded people, and also tried to force their way into mainland waters by helicopter.
At the same time, the Philippine side has been going back and forth on the relevant agreements with the Chinese side, saying that it has reached a temporary transportation and subsidy agreement with the Chinese side, and that it will overturn the agreement. The Chinese side agreed to the Philippine side's supply request out of humanitarianism, but the Philippine side regarded China's goodwill as a "compromise", and not only took this opportunity to hype up the ship and bring various Western media to "watch the excitement", but also took the opportunity to strengthen the hull of the ship in an attempt to transport military high-level and illegal construction materials to the islands and reefs.
Now that the situation in the South China Sea has become more and more tense, the Philippine side still does not know how to converge, while attracting Viet Nam and other countries to conduct joint exercises in the South China Sea; On the other hand, it leaked diplomatic notes between China and Malaysia in order to sow discord between China and Malaysia and even between China and ASEAN countries.
[Malaysia is very dissatisfied with the leakage of secrets by the Philippine side]
In the face of the Philippine side's step-by-step probing of China's "red line", this commentary article issued by the People's Daily is more like an "ultimatum", which conveys a very clear signal: China's patience has run out, and it cannot be ruled out that it will use force to solve the problem of the Philippine side tugging boats. It should be added that the Chinese tugboat is already waiting around Xianbin Jiao, and the frequency of training of the Shandong aircraft carrier group in the South China Sea is also increasing, and China's warning is not just rhetoric.
Third, the content of the Sino-US phone call. According to a statement published on the website of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Paparo highlighted the "insecure interaction" between China and the Philippines during the call. He also demanded that the Chinese military reconsider its strategy in the South China Sea and stop "dangerous, coercive tactics that could lead to an aggravation of the situation." In short, the US side hopes that China will not act in the South China Sea.
If you follow this down, you will find that the main purpose of the US commander's phone call to the Chinese side is to put a "lock" on the PLA in the name of "preventing miscalculation" and prevent the Chinese side from really using force to resolve the Philippine and South China Sea issues.
If United States always talks to China with the purpose of restricting the PLA's right to self-defense, there is no need to waste China's precious time.