China’s Troubling Naval Actions

The Chinese Navy is starting to encircle America. The Washington Examiner reports:

China is laying the groundwork to establish naval outposts in strategic locations around the United States, according to a senior Republican lawmaker.

“They’re positioning themselves in all the different ports — in the Straits of Malacca, in the South China Sea,” said Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., who chairs the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific and also sits on the subcommittee for the Western Hemisphere. “Then you bolster that up with ships in El Salvador, possible ships in Cuba, possible ships in Haiti. … I think it’s a big cause for concern.”

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President Trump’s administration warns regularly that China is using loans and economic aid to purchase influence and eventually “dominate” the Indo-Pacific region, a concern that the rising communist power dismisses as outdated Cold War thinking. But Beijing’s establishment of diplomatic relations with El Salvador is raising new fears that Chinese warships could dock in key ports in the Western Hemisphere.

Yoho said he’s worried now that El Salvador has severed its long-standing diplomatic ties with Taiwan and instead build a relationship with the Communist government. The switch reflects China’s insistence that countries cut ties with Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a breakaway province held by separatist forces. But China also hopes that state-owned companies can expand operations into the “largely deserted” port of La Union.

This is why additional naval funding is critical to defend America.