Look it up
NHẬP TỪ CẦN TRA VÀO Ô
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
By ERIC TALMADGE and CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
March 18, 2014 5:12 AM TOKYO (AP) — Finding the missing Malaysian jetliner would be a coup for any of the more than two dozen countries out there looking. But for China and the United States, it's a lot more than that — it has been a chance for the two rival powers in the Pacific to show off what they can do in a real-life humanitarian mission across one of the world's most hotly contested regions.
The hunt has major ramifications
for Beijing, which has been rapidly improving its military while
aggressively challenging neighbors over territorial disputes. Washington
is looking to prove it's still the top dog to allies worried about how
seriously it takes the threat China poses to the Pacific status quo.
So far, neither country has come up with anything significant. But they have been vigorously waving their flags.
China
has the most at stake and has been taking an unusually high-profile
role. Almost immediately after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared
March 8, China dispatched its largest-ever rescue flotilla to the
initial search area in the South China Sea, which Beijing considers its
own backyard.
Beijing sent
four warships and five coast guard and civilian patrol service vessels,
along with helicopters and fixed-wing surveillance aircraft. Among the
warships are two of China's largest and most advanced amphibious docking
ships. The 20,000-ton vessels are equipped with helicopters and a range
of small boats, including up to four hovercrafts.
"On
the one hand, China is simply doing its duty in orchestration with
other countries," said Ni Lexiong, a military expert at Shanghai's
University of Political Science and Law. "On the other hand, this
operation offers an opportunity to assess the Chinese navy's willpower,
efficiency and ability to carry out operations far from home, especially
in comparison with the U.S."
Fresh off a massive relief effort
after Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Philippines — which China barely
got involved in — the U.S. was once again quick to respond. Within days,
the Navy had two destroyers in the South China Sea participating in the
search, the USS Kidd and the USS Pinckney. Both are both based in San
Diego but were training in the area when the jet disappeared.
Since
the flight was bound for Beijing and two-thirds of the passengers were
Chinese, the public expects the government and military to pull out all
the stops. With more Chinese traveling abroad than ever — 100 million
last year, more than double the figure for 2009 — they are increasingly
reliant on their government to assist and protect them when overseas,
and they are looking for proof that it can fulfill that role.
National prestige is also a huge factor.
National prestige is also a huge factor.
Though
the U.S. remains the dominant power in the Pacific, China deeply craves
that role. Sizable chunks of its defense spending, which has grown
significantly over the past two decades to $131 billion, have been
devoted to boosting its ability to project force for both military and
humanitarian missions.
China's
Achilles' heel is its relative lack of experience, not having fought in
a major conflict since the end of the Korean War in 1953. Its leaders
have been trying to compensate with more realistic training scenarios,
including joint maritime search and rescue exercises with other nations.
Given
new clues from radar and satellite data that the missing Boeing 777
turned west and flew on for several more hours, the search has shifted
to a vast swath of land and sea stretching from the southern Indian
Ocean up to Kazakhstan. That's an area that neither China nor the U.S.
has traditionally put much emphasis on, and has forced both to rethink
their strategies.
The U.S.
Navy decided that long-range naval aircraft were a more efficient way to
search such a vast area, so will be relying on P-3 and P-8 planes,
while the two destroyers go back to normal duties.
The
mission is one of the first on the international stage for the P-8
Poseidon, one of the newest additions to the Navy's air capabilities.
The Navy touts the aircraft as the world's most advanced anti-submarine
and anti-surface ship reconnaissance plane and says it can cover 15,000
square miles (38,850 square kilometers) in a nine-hour flight.
China,
meanwhile, has sent most of its ships involved in the search toward
Singapore, where they will split into two groups, one traveling north
and the other south. They will be searching two huge blocks of ocean off
the coast of Sumatra and near the Andaman Islands — a total area of
300,000 square kilometers (186,000 square miles), or roughly three times
the area they searched in the South China Sea.
A
big problem for China is its bad blood with virtually all of its
neighbors, many of whom are key players in the search. China has
territorial disputes with India, Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam, and
many other countries in the region are wary of its efforts to exert
more control over Pacific shipping lanes that could impact their freedom
of trade.
Chinese
officials haven't done themselves any favors by criticizing Malaysia's
leadership in the search effort. Some saw that as an attempt to shift
public attention away from its own shortcomings, and Beijing's weak
military-to-military relationship with Malaysia probably exacerbated the
issue.
"Some
people say China is trying to use the mission as a way to show off its
presence, but that also means they are stepping up their efforts and
capabilities in disaster relief," said Kyouji Yanagisawa, a former
Japanese Cabinet adviser on national security. "This is a search
operation and I think it could be an opportunity to cultivate trust
among participating countries, rather than conflict."
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