On some level I am quite glad that china, its neighbors and the US are arguing over some rocks and some identification zone. It looks more like an ritualistic

On some level I am quite glad that china, its neighbors and the US are arguing over some rocks and some identification zone. It looks more like an ritualistic show fight you sometimes see in the animal kingdom than an eve of war. For that matter I am quite glad that they are not rattling their sabers about Taiwan... Nothing about the disputed island would be worth even a very small scale war, much less the risk of a bigger one. There's just no profit in it. On the other hand, battles about islands (like the Falklands War) tend to cost a lot less lives, especially civilian, than any land-based war. No, this is more about China trying to harness nationalistic emotions on the one hand and their "opponents" not wanting to present China with an opportunity for actually profitable wars or threats. If for example the US and Japan would back down, China might "negotiate" the annexation of Taiwan in the near future, which would be profitable. There have been rumors of such attempts already, and China's military buildup makes this ever more realistic.