China Using Military to Illegally ‘Push’ Nations Out of International Waters: Rep. Wittman

Soldiers disembark from AAV7 amphibious assault vehicles during the Han Kuang military exercise, which simulates China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) invading the island, on July 28, 2022 in Pingtung, Taiwan. Taiwan military launches five days of live fire drills involving all forces of the military to repel simulated attacks from China. Annabelle Chih/Getty Images

Communist China is illegally using its military to expand its territory and force neighboring nations away from natural resources, according to one congressman.

Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), who serves on the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), said that the regime is using military facilities to dominate the nations of Southeast Asia and to undermine American influence.

“China’s intent is to impede and weaken the United States,” Mr. Wittman said during a Sept. 28 interview with the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.

“They are almost over the top in their aggressiveness.”

Mr. Wittman’s comments follow several high-profile incidents involving China in the South China Sea last month.

On separate occasions, Chinese Coast Guard vessels, operating nearly 1,000 miles from Chinese territory, placed underwater barriers to impede and used water cannons against vessels from the Philippines. On each occasion, the Chinese vessels were illegally attempting to prevent those from the Philippines from accessing natural resources, which they had a legal right to.

The growing antagonism of Beijing toward its smaller neighbors, Mr. Wittman said, was only the latest in a decade-long CCP campaign to inflate China’s boundaries and steal resources illegally.

CCP Seeks to Push Other Nations Out of South China Sea

September’s confrontations between China and the Philippines happened near Mischief Reef, one of dozens of artificially constructed islands the CCP has created in recent years to illegally expand its territory and military reach throughout the South China Sea.

The reef now hosts a bevy of facilities, including radar and communications facilities, runways and hangars for fighter jets, and surface-to-air missiles, about 900 miles from Chinese territory and less than 150 miles from the Philippines.

The long-term goal of the facilities, according to Mr. Wittman, is to enable the CCP to project military power beyond the First Island Chain, which stretches from Japan to Indonesia.

“Their effort within the First Island Chain, in the Spratly Island chain, is all about military dominance,” Mr. Wittman said.

“These are airstrips, they are radars, they are surface-to-air missiles. There’s only one intention for that, and that is to push others out of that region.”

Mr. Wittman noted that he received a briefing last month about CCP activities against non-Chinese vessels in the region. Among them was an incident in which Chinese vessels interfered with a Philippines vessel as it attempted to do repairs on its own facility.

“Chinese Coast Guard vessels were using water cannons to blast these vessels that were trying to go there and maintain the [facility],” Mr. Wittman said.

The CCP’s aggression, he added, is not limited to the Philippines.

When U.S. vessels pass through the South China Sea now, he said, Chinese vessels actively try to interfere with their navigation and prevent them from reaching their destination.

“When our vessels go into those areas, it’s not just other Chinese military vessels; it’s scores of other vessels that surround our vessels to try to impede our navigation through the area,” Mr. Wittman said.

‘Threat of Our Lifetime’

Control of much of the South China Sea is often said to be “disputed” due to the regime’s aggressive behavior. The CCP has never actually controlled the 90 percent of the sea that it claims as its own, and the claims have been found by multiple international organizations to be illegal.

To that end, the regime’s current leader, Xi Jinping, has ordered the illegal construction of dozens of artificial islands to serve as military bases from which the CCP can effectively annex the region.

Such a strategy was on full display in late September when, as a Philippine ship approached Mischief Reef, all cellphones on board were pinged with the message “Welcome to China.”

Mr. Wittman said that the incident, and others like it, was further evidence that the CCP intends to forcibly expand its authoritarian model worldwide with no regard for international rules, norms, or even laws.

“China has no interest in [competition]. China wants to dominate,” Mr. Wittman said.

“China has no interest in any way, shape or form, of living up to the standard that we have in the United States. They will lie, cheat, and steal to achieve their ends.

“This is the threat of our lifetime. This is of the magnitude of what the world faced in 1938.”