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What China Has Been Building in the South China Sea

nytimes.com

31–40 of 178 posts

Re: What China Has Been Building in the South China Sea

#32
post #29
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does Dubai do it in contested international waters? ;)

We (USA) have a gigantic navy base replete with nuclear weapons 1000mi from China mainland. Where is the closest Chinese nuke base to the US?

Does it matter where nuclear weapons are? Can China or the US deliver one anywhere in the world?

Re: What China Has Been Building in the South China Sea

#33
The building to convert reef to island is one of the first steps to claim the entire Southeast-Asia sea by China. It will then have the self-declared ownership right to block all sea/air traffics through this region and bully other neighboring countries. Besides having a huge oil/gas reserve and fishes, in term of economic impact, this sea is as important as or more than Panama Canal or Suez Canal. A country with the right to block or own it will harm the rest of the world. Currently, the allies have been formed with a group of countries Japan, Philippine, Viet Nam, America and others trying to stop China but they have not found any solution nor success yet.

Here is the map that China wants to claim: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_disputes_in_the_So...

Re: What China Has Been Building in the South China Sea

#34
The building to convert reef to island is one of the first steps to claim the entire Southeast-Asia sea by China. It will then have the self-declared ownership right to block all sea/air traffics through this region and bully other neighboring countries. Besides having a huge oil/gas reserve and fishes, in term of economic impact, this sea is as important as or more than Panama Canal or Suez Canal. A country with the right to block or own it will harm the rest of the world. Currently, the allies have been formed with a group of countries Japan, Philippine, Viet Nam, America and others trying to stop China but they have not found any solution nor success yet.

Here is the map that China wants to claim: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_disputes_in_the_So...

Re: What China Has Been Building in the South China Sea

#35
post #23
post #14

Earlier 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…

I'm not saying you're wrong - it certainly needs to be addressed - but you make it sound like Russia and China are the only villains.

I think these issues need to be resolved without assessing blame, because the world's most powerful countries always try to impose their will on other smaller sovereign states.

Interesting that you mention Vietnam.

Re: What China Has Been Building in the South China Sea

#37
post #23
post #14

Earlier 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…

China did want a piece of Vietnam. It didn't achieve much when it tried to get it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Vietnamese_War

Of course, at the time China's economy and military where much smaller. But so was Vietnam's.

Out of China's neighbors that should be worried Vietnam is probably the least likely target since it's basically an armadillo. The rest, however, have plenty to fear.

Re: What China Has Been Building in the South China Sea

#38
post #3

Given the various names for that stretch of water, I'm surprised the NYT doesn't spin the article by calling it e.g. the West Philippine Sea. Maybe because South China Sea is more recognizable in a headline?

Petition to change name of South China Sea to Southeast Asia Sea: https://www.change.org/p/change-the-name-south-china-sea-to-...

420,000+ signatures so far...

Re: What China Has Been Building in the South China Sea

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More like China wants control over this area, probably for untapped underground resources.

Control of shipping is one very likely motivation.

Now if only China made some islands off the coast of Somalia... :)

Re: What China Has Been Building in the South China Sea

#40
post #27

A 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 f…

But isn't this tactic of fabricating islands to lay claim too transparent?

How could any court agree to the claims, why, yes, you demonstrated prior control, you indeed had a permanent population there"?

To anyone seeing this this is an obvious objective to nullify claims by ph, vn, my, jp, etc.

Can international courts be persuaded by these obvious artificial methods of establishing jurisdiction?

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