Nam Nguyen

POSC368A: American Foreign Relations with China

Professor Bae
Writing Assignment 1 Word Count: 504
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On September 15, The Diplomat posted an article titled “South China Sea: US Navy
Warship Conduct Freedom of Navigation Operation near Paracel Islands”, while The Global Times
published “US ‘navigational hegemony’ operations in South China Sea will alienate all sides” on
September 19. Both these articles are an attempt to portray the event on September 13, in which
the US Navy destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer conducted a freedom of navigation operation near
the abovementioned region.

Firstly, both articles put emphasis on the capacity and size of the destroyer. In their first
mention of the USS Wayne E. Meyer, both describe it as the Navy guided missile destroyer.
Secondly, both publications do not fail to mention the official purpose of the event, which was
announced by the US Navy as part of its “Freedom of Navigation operations (FONOPS).” Finally,
both articles recount that the event was part of a series of operations that has spanned four years,
beginning in October 2015, and that this was the second time the US had conducted such an
operation in the last two weeks. Both articles agreed that the “increase in frequency and intensity”
of the FONOPS signified the Trump administration’s intention to escalate “the tempo” in the
region.

The two articles, however, differ much in other aspects of their portrayal. The first
difference is the declaration of the rights over the Paracel islands. While The Diplomat attempts to
describe the islands as a disputed area, which is “claimed by both China and Vietnam”, the Global
Times asserts that the area is territory of China. This is demonstrated by the description of the event
as a “[trespass] into territorial waters of Xisha islands.” Another discrepancy lies in The Global
Times’ opt-out of reporting the response on the side of China. More specifically, while The
Diplomat briefly mentioned that “Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy vessels were deployed
to monitor” the USS Wayne E. Meyer’s passage through the area, the incident was not reported at
all by the Chinese counterpart. Finally, The Global Times put much more emphasis on interpreting
and evaluating the symbolic meaning behind the event, rather than just focusing on the factual
factors. In particular, the Chinese newspaper spent the second half of its article convincing its
audience that the exercise of American “navigational hegemony” through FONOPS and “other
intimidating military activities in the South China Sea” would eventually prove “futile”, and that
the Chinese government would stand unfazed by such tactics. A similar analysis was absent from
the article by The Diplomat, which only delivered fact-based accounts of the event.

In conclusion, it could be seen that differences in description of the event, which

contributed to heightening tensions between the U.S and China with respect to the South China
Sea dispute, outnumbered the shared features that the two articles had. Not only was the Global
Times more explicit and opinionated when discussing territorial claims, it was also less objective
in its interpretation of the repercussions of yet another “freedom of navigation operation” by the
U.S Navy.
References
Panda, A. (2019). South China Sea: US Navy Warship Conducts Freedom of
Navigation Operation Near Paracel Islands. [online] The Diplomat. Available at:
https://thediplomat.com/2019/09/south-china-sea-us-navy-warship-conducts-
freedom-of-navigation-operation-near-paracel-islands/ [Accessed 21 Sep. 2019].
Yinghui, W. (2019). US ‘navigational hegemony’ operations in S.China Sea will
alienate all sides. [online] The Global Times. Available at:
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1164984.shtml [Accessed 21 Sep. 2019].