Power Plays, Upstart Empire
"If the United States' bottom line is that China has to halt its activities, then a U.S.-China war is inevitable in the South China Sea."
The Global Times tabloid newspaper, Communist Party of China
"From the perspective of sovereignty, there is absolutely no difference [treating China's policies in the South China Sea as a domestic issue]. Some external countries are also busy meddling in South China Sea affairs."
Yang Yujun, spokesman, Chinese Defence Ministry
"I think the concern has to be that China misjudges the situation. Neither party [China or the U.S.] wants a war if it can be avoided, but there are red lines for both sides. I worry that Beijing considers the U.S. to be a declining power and assumes that Washington will back down if it shoots down a U.S. observation aircraft."
Robert Dujaric, director, Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies, Temple University, Japan
In the news last month alarms over satellite imagery revealing that China had come close to completion of an air strip on Fiery Cross, a reef in international and disputed waters, just as Beijing has begun building two lighthouses on reefs in the Spratly Islands, outcrops claimed by Vietnam and the Philippines, as well as China. Mischief Reef is being transformed into full island status through land reclamation.
The People's Liberation Army is set on instructions from Beijing, to "project power" beyond its borders at sea and in the air in a more assertive manner. For the goal, to safeguard its maritime possessions is vital to the country's future, according to a new policy document. The tradition of "offshore waters defence" is being replaced with "open seas protection" for the Chinese navy and air force.
This is required, according to the Chinese state council and cabinet because China faces a "grave and complex array of security threats". And here all its neighbours were under the impression that it was they and not China, under duress, with China threatening them and their territorial holdings; that they were facing that 'grave and complex array of security threats'.
Tension over disputed islands in the South China Sea and other places in the Pacific has the United States informing China's neighbours that it has their backs. An American aircraft last week snubbed repeated warning from the Chinese military to avoid flying reconnaissance missions over the disputed islands. In response, The Global Times claimed China might "accept" that conflict could erupt with the United States.
Washington had decided to "de-escalate" a major crisis in April of 2011 when a Chinese fighter plane collided with a U.S. Navy Intelligence-Gathering aircraft off Hainan Island. According to Mr. Dujarric, the response could be vastly dissimilar if another incident were to occur in international air space over the South China Sea.
The president of Taiwan, Ma Ying-jeou, calls for the different nations with claims to the South China Sea to carry out joint development of natural resources. Even while the Global Times speaks of the construction of runways, harbour facilities and buildings on the disputed Spratly Islands as China's "most important bottom line".
China's most important "bottom line" used to be its economic advance on steroids. But after the 2008 global recession with its traditional clients' capacity to import Chinese goods hugely straitened by their own stuttering economic renewals, China's economy has stalled. And so it is turning to other areas of growth and since it has an insatiable need for resources, it casts all caution to the winds by claiming as its own what others have always assumed to be theirs.
Its campaign to grow its economic and geographic base would proceed far more to its expectations if the United States had the uncommon good sense to inform its Asian allies that it's up to them alone to work out a stratagem for 'sharing' between their claims and those of the Chinese, even if the outcome is a forgone conclusion.
Analysts, however, feel that neither Washington nor Beijing seem of the opinion that it would be in both their interests to take a step backward. Leaving a serious risk of a minor incident occurring around the islands that could conceivably escalate rapidly to a juncture where pulling back is simply not an option, and all hell breaks loose, each side determined to make their point.
In that sense relations between China and the U.S. are not entirely unlike those between Iran and the United States. Where Ayatollah Khamenei speaks of "a series of other issues" beyond the nuclear program that vexingly remain to be settled with "the West, America, and the Zionists", inclusive of the issue of "human rights".
Ali Akbar Velayati, Khamenei’s top adviser for international affairs had much in common to discuss when he visited Beijing this week, in his comments during a meeting with officials of China’s Strategic Studies Center. According to Mr. Velayati, "the Islamic Republic of Iran has tried to resolve issues through negotiations, but it will stand up to the excessive demands of some Western countries."
Labels: China, Conflict, Natural Resources, United States
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, May 28, 2015
<< Home