[Irviding]

As of recently as I'm sure people have heard, the dispute over the South China Sea is getting worse as the days go on. Friends of mine in China say it's permeating the news every single day and that people there are getting anxious with the government for not more aggressively pursuing Chinese claims in the area.

Basically, the main belligerents are China and the Philippines at this time, though Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, Taiwan, and even Indonesia are involved as well.

Here is a map of the claims for reference



As you can see, it is China and the Philippines who are overwhelmingly claiming the most here. One would think that the Philippines would simply be muscled into giving up their claims due to their overwhelmingly weaker armed forces, but they are seeking aid from the US who are happy at this time to counter Chinese forces in Asia. President Obama called for a "pivot" in US foreign policy to Asia and is essentially containing Chinese growth of power.

Basically, while I do not think this is going to erupt into a war between major powers, it certainly brings up a few things here. Should the US respond to the Philippines requests for aid under the mutual defense treaty we have with them? Should China be contained at all by the international community for essentially muscling nations into giving it islands?

[Leftcoast]

I strongly disagree with China's maritime policies and actions, I don't believe the US should be involved at this point in time. The US has enough issues at home and abroad at the moment.

I do want to point how greedy China looks on that map, that does piss me off something fierce.

[sivispacem]

QUOTE (Leftcoast @ Thursday, Apr 26 2012, 21:43)

I do want to point how greedy China looks on that map, that does piss me off something fierce.

In relation to the Spratley Islands, out of all the possible belligerents I still cannot fathom what claim, if any, China and Taiwan have to any of the region. There's no close border (maritime, continental or otherwise), they never officially made any claim to them when they had garrisons on them in the 1930s and 1940s and even on that principal cannot claim to have inhabited them "first". It's totally absurd posturing.

[OchyGTA]

A similar situation occurred between China and Taiwan in the mid 1950's involving in an artillery barrage and the eventual occupation of the Matsu and Kinmen islands respectively. The Americans did come to the assistance of the Taiwanese government and in fact did threaten nuclear retaliation although this was in the height of the Cold War. I wouldn't expect any direct military involvement from the US at all, nor would I expect the Obama administration to make any effort to get involved as he seems to be an isolationist (in my view anyway) which seems strange for a democrat. Anyway, I've gone off on a tangent. With regards to the Mutual Defence Treaty, don't be surprised if the American government ignore this as they did in the past with Taiwan.

The containment of China is a difficult one as you don't want to spark a reaction by condemning them to harshly. However, sitting back and doing nothing or very little may encourage them to do whatever they want as you could argue the Nazi's did in the build up to WW2. In my opinion, the US should make more of a deal of their Mutual Defence Treaty with the Philippines to try and discourage the Chinese and maybe threaten sanctions should they continue with an aggressive foreign policy.