I would tend to agree with you, but ultimately I don't know what China's actual end game for the SCS is to determine whether the strategic ambiguity is a worthwhile policy to continue with, so that's why I'm pretty much on the fence.
PLAN SCS Bases/Islands/Vessels (Not a Strategy Page)
- Thread starter lilzz
- Start date
I would tend to agree with you, but ultimately I don't know what China's actual end game for the SCS is to determine whether the strategic ambiguity is a worthwhile policy to continue with, so that's why I'm pretty much on the fence.
Blackstone
Brigadier
It comes down to if Beijing Mandarins want to be right, or want to get the job done. If they care more about being right, then we'll see little real compromise, and if they care more about getting the job done, then we'll see them offering painful compromises, up to and including erasing the 9DL, ceding rocks/land features, and agreeing to arbitration at The Hague.
Fair or unfair, the focus is on China, because it is the single party that has the gravitas to make things happen. Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia lack power to be the leaders, and China wouldn't accept (nor trust) US leadership in the matter. Only China has the clout to gather the parties together at a neutral site (Singapore or Sydney maybe?) and only China could single-handedly offer enough concessions and honey to sweeten the deal where everyone could come away feeling they got the best deals they could, and they were on balance as fair as could be expected.
It's not so simple as even the US had to fight the British then the Spanish and militarily intervene in multiple conflicts in the region to dominate the Caribbean, and that's with the US' opponents in the region being significantly weaker.
China has more stronger, some much stronger, opponents in its maritime periphery to contend with which is partially why it is trying to go about re-acquiring its historic maritime space as peacefully as possible in the first place. But if the US and Japan continue to not just box in China but actively further limit China's maritime space both directly and indirectly through others then I am sure China will be pressured to push back much more strongly at some point.
Geographer
Junior Member
Can we get back on topic, which is the SCS bases and islands? Please take the political debate to this thread.
Does anyone have a KML map or GPS coordinates for each country's territorial claim in the SCS? I'm looking for that, would be a big thanks if anyone had. All I can find are pictures.
You can just go to Google Maps and type in their names.
Also, what made you think that username was a good idea? Definitely against forum rules.
It's just a username that came to mind. But no the territorial claims don't show up in Google Maps.
antiterror13
Brigadier
Whats wrong with the username?
Indonesia does not have a Western value system.
Vietnam does not have a Western value system.
Malaysia does not have a Western value system.
Your response is very typical from the Chinese. If you disagree, all they hear is 'USA' and 'The West', even when it is Indonesia that is objecting to China's behaviour.
The neighbouring nations are not going to accept China's attempt to manipulate them by claiming it is the West every time the CCG is 4500 metres off shore of Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
China is using this factually untrue concept to justify violating the sovereignty of every nation in the region.
The West, the USA, have nothing to do with the CCG invading Indonesian waters.