{"id":3308,"date":"2020-08-25T16:31:33","date_gmt":"2020-08-25T16:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=3308"},"modified":"2020-08-25T16:31:33","modified_gmt":"2020-08-25T16:31:33","slug":"south-china-sea-after-all-its-posturing-the-us-is-struggling-to-build-a-coalition-against-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=3308","title":{"rendered":"South China Sea: after all its posturing, the US is struggling to build a coalition against China"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“As tensions continue to mount in the waters surrounding the contested islands of the South China Sea, a US navy aircraft carrier conducted exercises<\/a> in the region on August 17. This came after the Trump administration hardened the US\u2019s longstanding neutral position on China\u2019s maritime claims in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May 1995, following China\u2019s occupation of Mischief Reef in the South China Sea \u2013 which is also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan \u2013 the US announced that it would take<\/a> \u201cno position on the legal merits of the competing claims to sovereignty over the various islands, reefs, atolls and cays in the South China Sea\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the US has not remained neutral<\/a> on how the multiple disputes in the region should be managed or resolved \u2013 something we\u2019ve written about in a recent book<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July 2020, US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, took things one step further when he stated<\/a> that most of China\u2019s claims to offshore resources in the South China Sea were unlawful. Four years after a ruling by the South China Sea Arbitral Tribunal<\/a>, which found China\u2019s claims had no basis in international law, the US has now endorsed that ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pompeo\u2019s statement was followed a few days later by a speech<\/a> from the US secretary of defense, Mark Esper, in which he accused China of \u201cbrazen disregard of international commitments\u201d. He said China had bullied nations around the Pacific, and that its aggressive tactics in the South China Sea obstructed other countries\u2019 rights to fishing and natural resources.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In contrast to Australia, south-east Asian states such as the Philippines<\/a> are more reticent<\/a> about working with the US to rein in China\u2019s expansionism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inherent contradictions between the Trump administration\u2019s America First strategy and the current calls for a coalition against China remain a sticking point. Trump has never attended an East Asia Summit<\/a>, and his administration\u2019s denigration of regional alliances has reduced American capacity to create a coalition of like-minded partners to support its position in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rhetorical posturing against China will not inspire regional allies to rally to America\u2019s side while it trumpets its America First policy. A better US strategy would be to rebuild relations with democratic allies, such as Australia, Japan, South Korea and even Indonesia. But the Trump administration\u2019s attempts to permanently harden US policy towards China, without prior consultation with the rest of the world, will make it harder to build much needed collective resilience against China\u2019s activities in the South China Sea.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/south-china-sea-posturing-us-111923441.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“As tensions continue to mount in the waters surrounding the contested islands of the South China Sea, a US navy aircraft carrier conducted exercises in the region on August 17. This came after the Trump administration hardened the US\u2019s longstanding neutral position on China\u2019s maritime claims in the South China Sea.
\nIn May 1995, following China\u2019s occupation of Mischief Reef in the South China Sea \u2013 which is also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan \u2013 the US announced that it would take \u201cno position on the legal merits of the competing claims to sovereignty over the various islands, reefs, atolls and cays in the South China Sea\u201d.<\/p>\n

But the US has not remained neutral on how the multiple disputes in the region should be managed or resolved \u2013 something we\u2019ve written about in a recent book.<\/p>\n

In July 2020, US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, took things one step further when he stated that most of China\u2019s claims to offshore resources in the South China Sea were unlawful. Four years after a ruling by the South China Sea Arbitral Tribunal, which found China\u2019s claims had no basis in international law, the US has now endorsed that ruling.<\/p>\n

Pompeo\u2019s statement was followed a few days later by a speech from the US secretary of defense, Mark Esper, in which he accused China of \u201cbrazen disregard of international commitments\u201d. He said China had bullied nations around the Pacific, and that its aggressive tactics in the South China Sea obstructed other countries\u2019 rights to fishing and natural resources.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“In contrast to Australia, south-east Asian states such as the Philippines are more reticent about working with the US to rein in China\u2019s expansionism.<\/p>\n

The inherent contradictions between the Trump administration\u2019s America First strategy and the current calls for a coalition against China remain a sticking point. Trump has never attended an East Asia Summit, and his administration\u2019s denigration of regional alliances has reduced American capacity to create a coalition of like-minded partners to support its position in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

Rhetorical posturing against China will not inspire regional allies to rally to America\u2019s side while it trumpets its America First policy. A better US strategy would be to rebuild relations with democratic allies, such as Australia, Japan, South Korea and even Indonesia. But the Trump administration\u2019s attempts to permanently harden US policy towards China, without prior consultation with the rest of the world, will make it harder to build much needed collective resilience against China\u2019s activities in the South China Sea.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[89],"class_list":["post-3308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-china"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3309,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3308\/revisions\/3309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}