China’s newly-blue water navy struts.  For three full weeks the force of two destroyers and an amphibious landing craft, possibly accompanied by a submarine escort, prowled the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific Ocean. The warships skirted Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. China probed relational flash points along the way. At the start the vessels patrolled the Paracel Islands, which are claimed by both China and Vietnam. Next stop, James Shoal, claimed by Malaysia as well as China. After forging through the Sunda Strait between Indonesia and Java, they policed the coast of Indonesia in an anti-piracy raid. The group skimmed the coast of Java, passing through the Lombok Strait, cut between two of the islands of the Indonesian group through the Makassar Strait and in the Western Pacific off the coast of the Philippines the ships’ artillery opened a barrage of live fire in a practice drill. Actions reminiscent of territorial claims and trans-national policing, all.

Most of the nations along the route studiously avoided comment, some even pretended not to notice. Most by contrast spoke out in the past at Chinese military actions. Secretary of State John Kerry during February cautioned the Chinese against increasing tensions that could lead to misunderstandings, weak gruel for the warriors who would oppose growing Chinese deepwater naval might and delivered after the January 20-February 11 provocative naval embassy. China’s Ministry of Defense publicly claimed its freedom to navigate the seas, and even the think tank commentators defended the exercise as completely within the bounds of international law (see http://www.iseas.edu.sg/ ). The Chinese naval force did not approach or circumnavigate Australia, yet the Australian Defense Minister overtly stated that China was under no obligation to notify Australia of the long-range forces’ movements, even though Australia monitored part of the exercises using surveillance aircraft.

Surrounding nations soothed with words or silence yet projected anxiety by actions.