How does the Marine Littoral Regiment deter this type of "gray" behavior?

🇨🇳#China’s Haiyang Dizhi Ba Hao research vessel has been conducting an illegal survey of 🇲🇾#Malaysia’s exclusive economic zone for over a month, accompanied by coast guard and maritime militia vessels.
Analysis at the https://t.co/74zuOuilJH blog: https://t.co/KADJYA8HfX pic.twitter.com/hVSW3kVgxX

— Ray Powell (@GordianKnotRay) July 24, 2023

I'm not sure of the terminology used by today's Marine Corps but in FD2030, you hear alot about "deter" and "gray zone" operations.

This should be easy for the FD2030 cult.

How does the Marine Littoral Regiment deter the type of activity we're seeing in this tweet?

Quick answer.

They can't.

Deterrence doesn't work against peer adversaries.  It works against weaker nations that aren't capable of responding and if they DO respond the blowback will be so severe that its not worth it.

China doesn't have that worry.

The sooner we accept that fact the sooner we can formulate a policy that can work.

The sooner we accept that fact the sooner we can develop our military to meet the challenge.

Currently the US political establishment, the Pentagon and the Marine Corps are failing to meet that challenge.

TLDR?  All this talk of deter and gray zone activity might sound good when you're briefing generals and congress critters but it don't do a thing in the real world.  Stop beating each others meat in these staff meetings and get some real shit done.