Special to WorldTribune.com

Bill Gertz, Washington Free Beacon

Competition between the United States and China over control of the South China Sea took center stage this week as President Obama opened up Vietnam to greater U.S. arms sales while China’s military intelligence chief met with a senior Russian general.

Obama announced that the United States is fully lifting a 41-year arms embargo against Vietnam, which has been locked in a dispute with China over control of the Paracel Islands. … The closer U.S.-Vietnam defense cooperation will include patrol boats and training for Vietnam’s coast guard that has been increasingly challenged in protecting Vietnamese fisherman by Chinese maritime law enforcement forces. …

In Beijing on Tuesday, China’s most senior military intelligence official, Adm. Sun Jianguo, held talks with Russia’s deputy chief of the general staff, Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy. The meeting between the two military leaders highlights what analysts say is a growing anti-U.S. alliance between Moscow and Beijing. …

Future defense alignment could include U.S. warship visits to Vietnam’s Cam Ranh Bay. “This visit represents a positive effort to sustain the administration’s faltering ‘rebalance to the Pacific’ policy,” said retired Navy Capt. Jim Fanell, a former Pacific Fleet intelligence chief. The closer ties are a welcome signal that demonstrate “an appreciation of the vital necessity of the United States’ alliance network to counter China’s unilateral expansionism,” Fanell said.

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