3 ms·

It's an interesting question, why aren't they in a position to do anything about it? An important part of the answer seems to be that they are incapable of work

It's an interesting question, why aren't they in a position to do anything about it? An important part of the answer seems to be that they are incapable of working together, maybe because their internal decision-making is dominated by domestic political issues, which prevents strategic long-term planning. The other countries which have a reasonable claim within the area claimed by China have a total population of over 600 million, so collectively, they are not small fry (Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore). But there's little sign of concerted action from them. If we also consider the countries which have an interest in safe and unrestricted passage through those waters, such as Japan, then the total population concerned would easily surpass 1 billion.

ChuckMcM 11y ago
> why aren't they in a position to do anything about it? From what I have read, most of these nations are too economically tied to China, in that they are supplying goods into the factories (sub-assemblies) or otherwise part of the chain of value between manufacturing and market. That gives China the ability to economically depress them just by changing the rules by which they can import/export goods through China. From a foreign policy point of view the US could provide trade incentives with India, to boost manufacturing there for US and European markets which would give those APAC countries another "path" to market and blunt the economic threat of China cutting itself off. When looking at the world as a chess board each player has three 'heads', one is ideology, one is economic force, and one is military force. Complete power over an opponent is achieved when you have and advantage in all three, but sometimes any two is enough.
- jacquesm 11y ago
  That's a knife that could cut both ways, I realize that that is mostly theoretical at this point but just like China has these countries over a barrel the reverse is also true, if they banded together they could put a serious dent in the Chinese economy.

ChuckMcM 11y ago

> why aren't they in a position to do anything about it? From what I have read, most of these nations are too economically tied to China, in that they are supplying goods into the factories (sub-assemblies) or otherwise part of the chain of value between manufacturing and market. That gives China the ability to economically depress them just by changing the rules by which they can import/export goods through China. From a foreign policy point of view the US could provide trade incentives with India, to boost manufacturing there for US and European markets which would give those APAC countries another "path" to market and blunt the economic threat of China cutting itself off. When looking at the world as a chess board each player has three 'heads', one is ideology, one is economic force, and one is military force. Complete power over an opponent is achieved when you have and advantage in all three, but sometimes any two is enough.

jacquesm 11y ago
That's a knife that could cut both ways, I realize that that is mostly theoretical at this point but just like China has these countries over a barrel the reverse is also true, if they banded together they could put a serious dent in the Chinese economy.