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HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii—US Navy Adm. Samuel Paparo on Friday took the reins of the American military command responsible for checking the rise of China, mincing no words in criticizing Beijing’s “troubling actions” and “rapid buildup of forces” in the Indo-Pacific region.
Paparo headed the US Pacific Fleet for three years before taking over the US Indo-Pacific Command (Indopacom), whose area of concern covers 36 nations including China. He succeeded Adm. John Aquilino who was retiring after more than 40 years of military service.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III presided over the change-of-command ceremony held at a pier overlooking the USS Missouri and USS Arizona Memorial, with the presidents of Micronesia and Palau among the hundreds of guests.
The Inquirer was among the journalists at the event as part of a reporting tour hosted by the US Embassy in Manila.
“Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the PRC (People’s Republic of China) and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and expansionist claims in the Indo-Pacific region,” Paparo said in his speech.
“Some call it the gray zone. My friend, General Brawner from the Republic of the Philippines, has a phrase called Icad. He has renamed the gray zone, which sounds otherwise benign and dull, into Icad—which is illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” he said, referring to Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr., who was also in attendance.
Gray zone, as defined by the US Army’s Special Operations Command, refers to “activities, actions or conflict between the space of peace and war” and, in this particular case, to China’s activities to flex its muscles short of a full-blown war.
