I wonder to what extend the real issue is Taiwan. After all China has a (often strongly expressed) territorial claim to Taiwan (and vice versa, but that is not as well-known). If China were to cede alleged land-rights w.r.t. to these islands, it might set a precedent that Taiwan might try to exploit. Maybe China wants to avoid this situation.
What China Has Been Building in the South China Sea
21–30 of 178 posts
Re: What China Has Been Building in the South China Sea
#22What a pity they destroyed those reefs. Besides that, artificial land is nothing new, a good chunk of NL was made by manipulating the sea. Even so this is clearly a 'landgrab', but not much different other than the time in which it happens (the present, rather than a few hundred years ago). NL did it with the colonies and plenty of other countries did it too. A lot of that has reverted over the last 3 decades but the…
It's not only about money, you cannot discount nationalism. Cyprus is a different situation than Falklands or the Spratly Islands. You can't compare an island with 1 million inhabitants to basically uninhabited islands.
The Spratly islands are in the middle of one of the most important sea corridors. Ultimately, even nationalism is about money, after all which war ever in the history of man did not start as a dispute over resources or territory?
Re: What China Has Been Building in the South China Sea
#23What a pity they destroyed those reefs. Besides that, artificial land is nothing new, a good chunk of NL was made by manipulating the sea. Even so this is clearly a 'landgrab', but not much different other than the time in which it happens (the present, rather than a few hundred years ago). NL did it with the colonies and plenty of other countries did it too. A lot of that has reverted over the last 3 decades but the…
That whole story kind of strikes me as propaganda with deliberately provided intel and probably even satellite images. There is increasing necessity to condition Americans for what is seen as a coming confrontation with China. People need to start being worried and have concerns. I'm not placing any kind of judgement on whether that is good or bad, but it is happening and our government deems it necessary to "educate…
Not everything is an American conspiracy of some kind. These issue need to be addressed before a smaller country and China start to take shots at each other (I mean this literally and figuratively). Similar issues are happening in Ukraine with Russia annexing Crimeria.
What if China wants a piece of the Philippines or Vietnam? It needs to be addressed on an international stage before the civilians on both sides begin suffering.
Re: What China Has Been Building in the South China Sea
#24What a pity they destroyed those reefs. Besides that, artificial land is nothing new, a good chunk of NL was made by manipulating the sea. Even so this is clearly a 'landgrab', but not much different other than the time in which it happens (the present, rather than a few hundred years ago). NL did it with the colonies and plenty of other countries did it too. A lot of that has reverted over the last 3 decades but the…
It's not only about money, you cannot discount nationalism. Cyprus is a different situation than Falklands or the Spratly Islands. You can't compare an island with 1 million inhabitants to basically uninhabited islands.
History has taught me that nationalism is just a tool of money.
Re: What China Has Been Building in the South China Sea
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
That whole story kind of strikes me as propaganda with deliberately provided intel and probably even satellite images. There is increasing necessity to condition Americans for what is seen as a coming confrontation with China. People need to start being worried and have concerns. I'm not placing any kind of judgement on whether that is good or bad, but it is happening and our government deems it necessary to "educate…
Not everything is an American conspiracy of some kind. These issue need to be addressed before a smaller country and China start to take shots at each other (I mean this literally and figuratively). Similar issues are happening in Ukraine with Russia annexing Crimeria. What if China wants a piece of the Philippines or Vietnam? It needs to be addressed on an international stage before the civilians on both sides begin…
More like China wants control over this area, probably for untapped underground resources.
Re: What China Has Been Building in the South China Sea
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not only about money, you cannot discount nationalism. Cyprus is a different situation than Falklands or the Spratly Islands. You can't compare an island with 1 million inhabitants to basically uninhabited islands.
The Spratly islands are in the middle of one of the most important sea corridors. Ultimately, even nationalism is about money, after all which war ever in the history of man did not start as a dispute over resources or territory?
Ones involving love, religion or ideology? Blanket statements like that never hold water.
Re: What China Has Been Building in the South China Sea
#27A big part of this is also "creating facts on the ground" that align as closely as possible with the PRC's "9-dash line"[1], especially prior to a decision being made in the Philippines v. China case before the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Those facts also provide much better power projection capabilities to the PLAN (the PRC's Navy).
Development of the islands actually accelerated dramatically when the case was filed, and I suspect the PRC wanted to get the largest and most obvious work done before that case concludes, since, although the PRC doesn't recognize the court's jurisdiction, past cases where other countries have acted with similar disregard suggest the optics surrounding it still matters.[2]
[1] See: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-13748349 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine-dotted_line
[2] For example: http://systemchangenotclimatechange.org/article/caving-inter...
Re: What China Has Been Building in the South China Sea
#28I wonder to what extend the real issue is Taiwan. After all China has a (often strongly expressed) territorial claim to Taiwan (and vice versa, but that is not as well-known). If China were to cede alleged land-rights w.r.t. to these islands, it might set a precedent that Taiwan might try to exploit. Maybe China wants to avoid this situation.
I think they're both related to upholding territorial claims, which the PRC says is a "core interest" (ie, something they're willing to go to war over), but I don't think it's viewed as a direct domino effect.
The more direct link is potentially to the CCP's claim to legitimacy as the government of China. If they can't defend China's "historic" claims to territory then they could lose legitimacy in the eyes of an increasingly nationalistic public.
Re: What China Has Been Building in the South China Sea
#29Re: What China Has Been Building in the South China Sea
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not everything is an American conspiracy of some kind. These issue need to be addressed before a smaller country and China start to take shots at each other (I mean this literally and figuratively). Similar issues are happening in Ukraine with Russia annexing Crimeria. What if China wants a piece of the Philippines or Vietnam? It needs to be addressed on an international stage before the civilians on both sides begin…
More like China wants control over this area, probably for untapped underground resources.
Control of shipping is one very likely motivation.