How will Putrajaya resolve China’s air force intrusion?

 

The intrusion by China’s air force planes provides Malaysia with a ‘golden opportunity’ to analyse and address defence issues, says an expert.

PETALING JAYA: The Royal Malaysian Air Force’s (RMAF) open and detailed revelation of an intrusion by China’s air force has raised many questions that the government needs to answer, says an expert in defence and diplomacy matters.

“The biggest question is how the government, in particular Wisma Putra, is going to resolve it?” asked the expert, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The expert said, however, that the RMAF’s “extremely rare” move to reveal details of the incident which saw its fighter jets being scrambled to intercept 16 People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) planes in Malaysia’s maritime zone (ZMM), provided a “golden opportunity” for the country.

The source said while the possibility that the PLAAF was carrying out surveillance in the area could not be ruled out, the Chinese could also have been “testing the waters” over Malaysia’s air defence systems and its reaction.

The “breach of Malaysian airspace and sovereignty” – as foreign affairs minister Hishammuddin Hussein termed it – by the Chinese aircraft is the latest in a series of actions by China in the disputed South China Sea that has its neighbours worried.

For years, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei, Taiwan and Vietnam have been contesting China’s claim to almost all of the South China Sea. These countries have often protested against China over what they claimed were intrusions into their territories.

In recent years, the dispute over the sea has seen a rise in tensions not only between China and these nations but also between China and the US. As recent as May 20, China and the US exchanged strong words over US naval activity in the region.

The expert asked what the rules of engagement would have been had the Chinese planes not turned back when the RMAF scrambled its jets.

An RMAF map showing the flight path of the Chinese planes and how they were turned back.

“Typically, when an air force is confronted with such a situation, they would fire a warning shot or resort to aggressive manoeuvres to ‘force’ the foreign planes to turn back. Were our Hawks armed for engagement? How many Hawks were deployed?

“My question is why did we scramble our Hawk 208 fighters? Those are advanced trainer jets, light fighter jets. They do not have the same interception capabilities of our Sukhoi Su-30MKM or F/A-18 Hornets.

“Are they airworthy? Or were the Hawks deployed because they are closest to that part of the South China Sea? If so, why are we not stationing more advanced fighters closer to the region?”

He commended Hishammuddin for saying Wisma Putra would summon the Chinese ambassador to explain the incident.

The Chinese, the expert said, had already said the flight by the 16 planes was routine training and that it had not entered any other country’s territorial air space under international law.

“Essentially, the Chinese are saying they have done nothing wrong. But Wisma Putra wants an explanation on the breach of Malaysian airspace and sovereignty.

“So who is telling the truth? And what happens next? Will China apologise? I doubt they will, given their stance on the South China Sea.”

The expert said if Wisma Putra was not satisfied with China’s explanation and if the country refused to apologise, Malaysia should take the “bold” step of expelling the Chinese ambassador and recalling the Malaysian ambassador in China.

“In diplomatic lexicon, expelling an ambassador is a very serious statement. I think if we do not do so, we (Malaysia) run the risk of looking weak.”

Still, the expert said, the incident provided Malaysia with the “golden opportunity” to analyse and address defence issues, including the placement of frontline fighter jets and pattern of violations by foreign forces, particularly in the hotly disputed South China Sea.

Meanwhile, defence analyst Lam Choong Wah said Asean and China were currently negotiating a code of conduct (CoC) for the South China Sea and that these negotiations needed to be sped up to regulate the behaviour of military operations in the region.

“Malaysia should utilise all available diplomatic channels to handle the issue to preserve national interests,” Lam said.

“Being firm or soft is not the crux of the problem. The core issue is there is no CoC in place to regulate military behavior in disputed areas, and until there is a CoC, military or maritime enforcement standoffs will take place from time to time.” - FMT