These days, China and the U.S. have worked out their own code of conduct in the air and at sea to avoid misunderstanding. So, the chance that the U.S. could benefit from conducting such missions without fear of collisions has theoretically reduced. Nevertheless, there is always a distance between theory and reality. Under certain real time contingencies, there is always the likelihood that theory will fail. If that were to happen, America would run the risk of losing its P-8 know-how.

China has no intent to seek dominance, but is unwilling to accept others' hegemony. China has the right to reclaim land in the South China Sea, based on its own sovereignty, just like the U.S. has a right to claim freedom of navigation in international waters and space. However, it's important to make sure where the boundary between domestic and international space is in the first place.

Taiwan is a part of China. With America's logic concerning the South China Sea, America has no right to sell weapons to Taiwan. Iraq is not a part of America. Without evidence and a UN mandate, the U.S. had no right to launch preemptive attacks on Baghdad. A country which is uninterested in respecting other nations' sovereignty and integrity is not entitled to preach the rationale of freedom of navigation per international law.

That having been said, China is uninterested in following the U.S. hegemony by not following international norms and laws, simply because the U.S. has set bad precedents. For justifiable freedom of navigation, China would respect and protect such practices, but still caution that international law has not disallowed the practice of tracing and watching espionage flights. Consequently, the more eavesdropping missions the U.S. plans to conduct, the better chances that it would lose the control of P-8 technology.

The U.S. dispatching of P-8s and their deployment in Singapore would not reverse China's rise. Rather, it presses China to spend more on countering the P-8s. It prompts a new direction for China's defense modernization, timed perfectly during the drafting of Beijing's 13th Five-Year plan.

Shen Dingli is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.ccgp-fushun.com/opinion/shendingli.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.