Defense Board paper--Unclassified

Dear Jake,

I am a member of the Defense Policy Board to the Secretary of Defense, and we had a two day meeting this week on China’s activities in the South China Sea. I am attaching an Unclassified draft of John Hamre, chairman of our Board, summarizing our recommendations. With the Chinese President’s visit and the South China Sea issue front and center, Hillary may be asked to address this question. If you are interested, I can explain the handwritten notes. The essence of our concern was that the activities of China in the South China Sea, which they believe to be solely in their sovereignty, like our Great Lakes, violates international law and international custom, and causes great environmental degradation. There was a recognition that the Chinese will eventually militarize the “islands” they are building our of rock and coral, and there is little the US can do to stop that.

The basic recommendations were as follows:

1. The US needs a “whole of government” approach coordinated by the White House to match the “whole of government” approach taken by China, involving diplomatic, military, economic and communications strategies.

2. The US Navy should launch freedom of navigation operations as soon as possible, and before China fully militarizes the “islands”, to establish the principle that we consider this to be international waters. We were told that there is a broad consensus to do so, but it is being held-up at the highest levels of the White House.

3. There should be joint Naval exercises with our friends and allies in the area, who are very concerned by the aggressive Chinese activity. We should urge Congress to pass the $400  million request for capacity building among our friends and allies.

4. The US Senate should be informed that the US is at a great disadvantage in pursuing our diplomatic strategy by failing to ratify the Law of the Seas Treaty. By putting this in the context of combatting Chinese behavior, perhaps there could be  a reconsideration of the Treaty, which came close to ratification in 2003. All the Republicans on our Board agreed.

5. Short of ratification, the US should take a more visible role, through an amicus brief of public statement to the court, supporting the Philippine petition to the UNCLOS court.

6. We should past TPP ASAP to underscore our economic projection.

7. The USG should speak with one voice about the fact that Chinese activity contravenes  rules-based international norms. They are building this artificial “islands” to then stake out a claim to jurisdiction in the seas abutting them.

Best wishes,

Stu