The big question is why.

China Filling America’s Vacuum

Thursday, July 22, 2010 06:41 PM ET
IBD Editorials

Strategy: As the U.S. retreats from the world stage, the nation's top military officer is warning us about China's military buildup and intentions. Already, China is telling us to keep off the grass.

Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen, visiting U.S. troops at Camp Red Cloud in South Korea on Wednesday, talked about his growing concerns about China.

"I've moved from being curious about what they're doing to being concerned about what they're doing," the admiral said. "I see a fairly significant investment in high-end equipment — satellites, ships ... anti-ship missiles, obviously high-end aircraft and all those kinds of things. They are (also) shifting from a focus on their ground forces to focus on their navy ... and their air force."

The big question is why.

China's military ascendancy comes at a time of U.S. neglect. It's building and deploying a blue-water navy to protect its overseas interests and supply lines as well as to back up its territorial claims, which start with Taiwan, its "lost province."

Beijing has long declared the South China Sea to be its territorial waters and has laid claim to two disputed island chains, the Paracel Islands about 200 miles from the coast of Vietnam and the Spratly Islands in the southeastern part of the South China Sea.

The recent sinking of a South Korean warship by a North Korean torpedo was not an aberration, but a sign of what can happen when hostile powers perceive U.S. weakness and growing Chinese strength in a vital region of the world.

China's increasing boldness includes recently warning the U.S. not to conduct its four-day Invincible Spirit naval exercise in the Yellow Sea, complete with the aircraft carrier George Washington.

So we didn't. We held it instead on the other side of the Korean peninsula in the Sea of Japan.

In April, a Chinese naval task force from the East Sea Fleet, including the imposing Sovremenny-class guided missile destroyers, frigates and submarines, passed through the Miyako Strait near Okinawa, a move that sent shock waves through Japan.

The exercise took place just days after warships from the North Sea Fleet returned from what China's forces called "confrontation exercises" in the South China Sea.

In late March, as two Chinese warships docked in Abu Dhabi, a first for the modern Chinese navy, Adm. Robert Willard, leader of U.S. Pacific Command, said recent Chinese military developments were "pretty dramatic."

Indeed they are, and there's a method in their madness.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysi ... acuum.aspx