Arms race in South China Sea

[Corzhens]

Admiral Scott Swift, the US Pacific Fleet Commander, is hinting on a possible arms race in the South China Sea as an effect of the militarization of the Spratlys and other areas. Settling the issue with the use of military force is not far fetched since the international law is seemingly ignored by China.

Read more at US Navy commander warns of possible South China Sea arms race | mb.com.ph | Philippine News

 

[Redheart]

The South China Seas dispute won't be solved amicably but that doesn't necessarily mean that though tensions will soar there'll be war. Eventually I think China will do whatever it pleases and ignore what the opinions of the international community. Will the disputants declare war on China? Not likely. The arms race therefore is not the first step towards resolving the dispute using armed conflict. There's too much to lose, too little to gain.

 

[jliggins2002]

I have been seeing this build up for a while now. I was doing some research on why this area could so important. In the era of rockets, I think the supply of tungsten could be part of the reason. This material is very valuable and countries are always positioning for natural resources. I may be overthinking this but just a thought.

 

[Esperahol]

All things considered the US's posturing should be more aggressive regarding China. I mean I know the rhetoric is that China holds all the cards, but honestly they have a lot of issues to work out. Wealth distribution is completely broken, the population is about to have a severe decline thanks to the idiotic "One Child" policy that saw people selecting for boys instead of girls - never mind that girls have babies not boys, and of course China can't call in the debt America has without destroying their best customer. Also it doesn't matter if they have a lot of people, if those people are poorly trained and old(er).

And I'm saying this just to be aggressive, the simple point is that as Putin has shown you can't be wussy about this sort of thing. If you allow these kinds of excursions they will only get bolder and worst until by the time you do deal with it's a massive mess you could have avoided. But we'll see - diplomacy has it's place, but sometimes you need less to walk quietly and more to be swinging with a massive stick.