Legally, there is no doubt or question the Impeccable was in the right and that China was in the wrong. The survey ship was in international waters, where it had every right to be. China's claim that it was in her Exclusive Economic Zone is irrelevant. The Impeccable was fishing for information, not fish. An Exclusive Economic Zone is not the same thing as territorial waters. Beyond the 12-mile limit that is universally recognized in international law, every navy can legally spy on any other navy as much as it wishes.

However, to say the U.S. Navy's actions were legal is not the same as saying they were strategically wise. On the contrary, the incident looks like another case of elevating tactics over strategy, on the part of both the United States and China.

Tactically, it is easy to understand why the U.S. Navy wants to collect as much information as it can about Chinese submarines, especially boomers. In a war between the United States and China, that information would greatly facilitate American anti-submarine warfare. Boomers -- strategic subs armed with submarine-launched ballistic missiles -- represent the greatest Chinese naval threat to the American homeland, and Chinese attack subs are probably the second most dangerous threat to the ships of the U.S. Navy. I would rank attacks on U.S. Navy aircraft carriers by nuclear-armed ballistic missiles at the top.

Information on oceanographic conditions around Hainan Island, for which the Impeccable surely was also trolling, would be critical for any attempt to bottle Chinese submarines up in their base.

I am sure these arguments were used by the U.S. Navy to sell Impeccable's mission. But whoever bought the sales job forgot about strategy. The strategic interests of the United States dictate that U.S. policymakers avoid, rather than prepare for, a war with China. Such a war could end up destroying both countries as powers.

More, in a fourth-generation world, the United States needs China to be a center and source of order. If China lost a war with the United States, there would be a real danger that China's internal unity might also be lost. If China came apart internally, as she has so many times in her history, she could end up a vast, bubbling cauldron of fourth-generation war. Few outcomes would be worse, from the standpoint of all states.

Part 2: U.S. policymakers need to put long-term strategic considerations above tactical issues in dealing with China.

(William S. Lind, expressing his own personal opinion, is director of the Center for Cultural Conservatism at the Free Congress Foundation.)

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