Have Chinese ‘Coercive Tactics’ Sidelined U.S. Warships?

As President Trump tells the UN today that nations are entitled to put their own interests first, congressional testimony should shed light on one country, Communist China, that is increasingly doing just that – at our expense.

The Navy’s top leaders will discuss four incidents this year, three of them crashes, that have sidelined U.S. Pacific-based warships as China escalates tensions in that ocean’s western waters.  The hearing will surely expose serious problems with training, readiness and excessive demands on a fleet that is too small to perform its myriad, vital missions.

A recent Pentagon report, however, found that China is employing “coercive tactics, such as the use of…its maritime militia, to enforce maritime claims and advance its interests in ways…calculated to fall below the threshold of provoking conflict.” The question occurs: Have those tactics had anything to do with these fatal collisions?