Speaking at the Harvard Institute of Politics on Dec. 2, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter told the audience that he believes war with China, cold or otherwise, is unlikely.
When Carter was asked on his views regarding China’s territorial claims in South China Sea, he gave this reply:
I can certainly say what is the most desirable. And that would be a South China Sea in which territorial claims are settled peacefully and without military activities, where everyone has freedom of navigation.
Remember, those are the seas through which most of the world’s commerce flows, including to China, both imports and exports, energy and everything else. So we all depend upon the freedom of the commons.
And I’m fine with having China you know at sea also. They have a navy. They can go anywhere the United States Navy goes. And we can partner with China’s navy, and we are in things like dealing with piracy, trafficking in human beings and drug trade.
There’s all kinds of common problems that we all have that affect the commons in the seas. Why don’t we work on all those things together instead of squabbling about whose map, you know, old map is — beats somebody else’s old map, or these places that — where — that everybody can share?
Everybody can share those oceans. There’s no reason why anybody has to dominate them. We’re certainly not seeking to dominate them. So that’s the future I hope for.
And I hope — and by the way, just because you’re from China I want to emphasize what I said earlier, which is China’s not the only one, the only country that is making claims, that is doing dredging. It happens to be doing it on a much larger scale than anyone else.
But our principle remains the same, which is we oppose all reclamation and further militarization. We think everybody ought to knock it off. That’s no way to do things. You can resolve these disputes, territorial disputes in some other way. Let’s not forget the big prize here, which is free commons for everyone.