3 ms·
It goes a bit further than that though. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan have all been running reclamation projects for some time in the very same
by bilbo0s 11y ago
It goes a bit further than that though.
Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan have all been running reclamation projects for some time in the very same disputed areas. The US now decides, since China has started doing so, that China should stop ???
Why, on EARTH, did we not get out in front of this problem and put the smack down on Vietnam, the Philippines, and Taiwan when they initially started down this road ???
It just makes our foreign policy look overtly transparent to third parties. I mean, the average EU citizen or South American probably looks at that and says... "Are you shitting me ???"
- melling 11y agoNah, it's not too difficult to understand why it's a problem now. Did you read the article? "China claims almost the whole of the South China Sea, resulting in overlapping claims with its neighbours."
- bilbo0s 11y ago??? The thing is ... ALL of the claims overlap with the claims of neighbors. That's the entire problem. The claims of Vietnam overlap with the claims of Malaysia. The claims of the Philippines overlap with Taiwanese claims. (In fact, Taiwan's official position is that the entirety of the South China Sea falls under their sovereignty.) The fact is... this is a mess that we should have either refused to wade into... or been unmistakeably strict in enforcing our view. This is no place for waffling.
- tzs 11y agoDid you look at the map in the article? China is overextending far beyond what any of the other countries are attempting. In some places there almost isn't any water left between the boundary of China's claim and the shores of the other country!
- est 11y agoit was Republic of China claimed them first, back when most ASEAN countries didn't exist
- mcintyre1994 11y agoIt could be to do with a bigger push in the Spratlys too, that lands a long way from China and accepting them being there seems really close to accepting their claimed maritime border.
- yincrash 11y agoI suspect that the average EU citizen or South American would say as long as it's NIMBY, why should I care.
- jameshart 11y agoSouth China Sea economic rights has been a rumbling 'outstanding issue' in international politics for decades, this isn't particularly a new or significant shift in the geopolitical landscape. All the players are pushing at the boundaries of what they can get away with and the only constraint on that is the occasional international diplomatic objection.