According to the U.S. publication "NSJ" on October 19, from October 6 to 17, the United States conducted the Sama Sama Maritime Joint Exercise with nine allied countries in the South China Sea.

This multinational exercise was grand in scale, with warships from ten countries—U.S., Philippines, Australia, Japan, UK, France, Canada, Italy, Thailand, and New Zealand—gathered together. The exercise included joint patrols, simulated naval battles, supply drills, anti-submarine and anti-air operations, and other subjects.

The location was chosen west of Balabac Island in the Philippines, almost adjacent to China's southern waters, sending a very clear signal.

Especially after China's coast guard lawfully expelled a Philippine aircraft that had illegally entered Huangyan Island, the timing of this exercise was particularly sensitive. Its intention was obviously to create public opinion pressure on China and attempt to compress China's strategic space in the South China Sea through multilateral actions.

Warships of the United States and other countries

It is understood that this Sama Sama military exercise is the largest in scale in history and also the most symbolic joint exercise between the U.S. and the Philippines in recent years.

The Philippines has just completed the restructuring of its naval command structure, and the newly established Western Naval Command participated in the exercise for the first time, clearly preparing for the so-called comprehensive archipelago defense concept.

Meanwhile, the United States also sent multiple types of ships and aircraft, including the P-8A anti-submarine patrol plane and the USS Independence littoral combat ship, demonstrating its high level of commitment and intentions in the South China Sea region.

At the same time, countries such as France, Canada, Japan, and Australia also dispatched their warships to participate, attempting to strengthen the containment of China under the guise of so-called international consensus.

This exercise not only includes traditional subjects, but also added quasi-war content such as joint firepower strikes, air-sea coordinated anti-submarine operations, and regional supply drills, obviously organizing tactical exercises with China as a hypothetical enemy, trying to create a public opinion atmosphere of China being surrounded by ten countries, and preparing for continuous pressure on China's policies in the future.

Russian warships

At the same time as this exercise, a Russian fleet entered the South China Sea.

According to Russian announcements, a Pacific Fleet group consisting of the frigate Admiral Grigoryev, the light frigate Gremyashchiy, and the large supply ship Butoma set sail from Vladivostok at the beginning of October and moored at Da Nang port in Vietnam on the 12th for a five-day friendly visit.

From the publicly available timeline, this visit coincided highly with the Sama Sama exercise.

This point was quickly captured and magnified by U.S. media, which called it a complex geopolitical signal, even directly asserting that it was an indirect strategic support for China by Russia, aiming to disrupt U.S. rhythm and increase the difficulty of multi-polar confrontation in the region.

Although the Russian statement did not mention China or the South China Sea situation, the American media clearly did not want to ignore the possibility of such a strategic resonance.

From the specific situation, the U.S. media clearly over-interpreted it.

After all, Russia's visit was just a routine long-range deployment, and the port it chose to dock was Vietnam, which has maritime disputes with China, without any substantive joint action with China, nor did it make any official statements supporting the South China Sea position.

However, from the perspective of geopolitical confrontation, this visit, which took place during the Western large-scale military exercises, indeed had some strategic effect.

The presence of Russian warships in the relevant sea areas during the exercise itself could potentially interfere with U.S. reconnaissance operations, maritime scheduling, and communication deployment.

Moreover, Russia's move inserted a non-Western major power variable into the South China Sea, helping to weaken the U.S.'s monopoly on the discourse system, giving the Philippines and other countries more hesitation in strategic choices.

From a long-term perspective, through repeated visits to Vietnam and enhancing its military presence, Russia may seek to establish supply stations or forward bases, providing support for future deployments in the Indo-Pacific.

These actions may not be explicitly supporting China, but they may have an objective coordination effect in terms of strategy—especially against the background of the U.S. and Western countries continuously grouping up to suppress China, any non-hostile major power's presence on-site can serve to break up the encirclement formation.

Philippine flag and Chinese flag

It should be emphasized that China has already established a complete response system to deal with external forces stirring up trouble in the South China Sea.

Whether it is regular air and sea patrols, or multi-level island and reef defense systems, from legal rights protection, early warning reconnaissance to joint countermeasures, every link is highly mature and responds quickly.

In recent years, China has continuously advanced the construction of practical combat capabilities such as intelligence reconnaissance, communication suppression, and firepower demonstration in the South China Sea, and has already possessed comprehensive means to immediately counter and effectively deter any external provocation.

Especially in the construction of joint tactics systems, through the coordinated linkage of the Navy, Air Force, Rocket Force, and Strategic Support Force, it has already achieved a second-level closed-loop from perception to strike, occupying an absolute advantage in the tactical level.

No matter whether external forces create friction through military exercises, cruising, or propaganda warfare, China can quickly stabilize the situation and ensure that the order of the South China Sea is not torn apart.

China does not need the support of anyone, and is not afraid of any form of encirclement, because our strength has already supported our own strategic security boundary.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7563152984520131110/

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