International Crisis Group
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Did the Game Just Change in the South China Sea? (And What Should the U.S. Do About It?) | Yanmei Xie & Andrew S. Erickson
The game has changed. By sending a military aircraft to take a close-up view of the outposts China is constructing and stating it “will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows,” the U.S. appears to have drawn a red line for Beijing.
Washington demonstrated its substantive investment in freedom of navigation and open access to Asia’s maritime commons and displayed resolve to counter threats to them. The message, delivered via the navy, will discredit a calculation by some Chinese and regional actors that the U.S. is unwilling or incapable of delivering more than verbal protests, because it is distracted by crises in other parts of the world. It may also stiffen the spines of other players, most importantly the Association of South East Asia Nations (ASEAN).
FULL ARTICLE ( via China File)
Photo: Aljazeera English
Source: China File
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‘Sea grab’ sparks tensions in South China Sea | Stars and Stripes
By Wyatt Olson
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — Many people look at China and see a unified behemoth tightly controlled by the communist central leadership, so when a diplomatic fray develops, like a rash of recent confrontations in the South China Sea, the assumption is that it’s all part of a grand plan by Beijing.
But some analysts see the bureaucracy as more akin to a giant octopus, with the teeming tentacles of ministries and provinces setting their own agendas as they compete for clout and profits — as long as they maintain loyalty to the Communist Party. The philosophy, particularly among southern provinces, is the ancient adage, “Heaven is high and the emperor far away.”
FULL ARTICLE (Stars and Stripes)
Photo: Official U.S. Navy Imagery/Flickr
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Financial Times | Dragons are stirring up the South China Sea
By David Pilling
“Too many dragons, too much noise.” That is how one Chinese scholar explained constant friction in the South China Sea, where Beijing’s territorial claims are rubbing up against competing claims from several south-east Asian nations.
Photo: US Navy/Wikimedia Commons