White House Vows to Keep China From Claiming Chinese-Built Islands

While both sets of remarks have caused confusion in the Western Pacific, the Trump view of the South China Sea won’t be far off from the Obama administration, James Kraska, a professor of worldwide law, oceans law and policy at the U.S. Naval War College’s Stockton Center for the Study of global Law, told USNI News.

Given Chinese sensitivities and Donald Trump’s unique, often incendiary approach to diplomacy, the struggle between the old superpower and the emerging superpower is creating deep anxiety about what the Year of the Rooster will bring.

Tensions over the South China Sea could be set to escalate after Beijing urged the United States to act “cautiously” in its approach to disputed islands which China claims as its “irrefutable” sovereign territory. “There was already a downturn, but since the election the volume of worldwide reserves – US dollars and Euros – held inside of China has been dropping even faster”.

Hishammuddin described the United States presidential election in November as one of two “cataclysmic” events that pose “an unprecedented set of challenges”, the other being the withdrawal of Britain from the European Union.

China is waiting to see what Trump decides to do.

Next week Trump will welcome Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto to the White House.

But even though China’s most concerted military modernization efforts did not begin until after the 95-96 Taiwan Strait Crisis, which was still brewing when Kristoff wrote his article, today’s strategic circumstances weren’t entirely unforeseen.

Observers quickly pointed out the full-scale blockade this would require was likely to provoke a military response from Beijing – a response that might be enough to make the United States think twice. “If China’s economy turns south, they’re less of a big source of demand for US agricultural products”. “But if that’s an indication of future weakness in Chinese growth, it also means a weakness in Chinese demand for other products and a lot of those are ag products”. “We’ve empowered the worst elements of the Chinese political system by showing them that aggression works”. If Trump does not agree, “Beijing will have no choice but to take the gloves off”, the China Daily News said in an editorial.

The South China Sea dispute is a mess of possible alliances, with some like China and the Philippines especially hard to predict if World War 3 ever did become a reality.

“We’ve been talking about this for a long time“, Trump told reporters as he signed the order, calling the move a “great thing for the American worker”. Asian countries, particularly Singapore, Vietnam, India and Australian, will want Trump to get his signalling to Beijing right i.e. convey that Washington is prepared to stand by its partners while ensuring hostilities do not escalate.

What would China do in return?

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had also expressed similar concerns last Friday about being forced to choose between the USA and China. Far from other countries, “making our products, stealing our companies and destroying our jobs”, other countries are making components of American products, American companies are thriving in a global environment and the United States has created plenty of new jobs.

As a prime example of where this extremism may lead, James Kraska also of the Naval War College has attempted to provide a legal rationale for a “blockade”.

Ning Jizhe, China’s statistics chief and deputy head of the top economic planning body, used his Friday briefing on 2016 economic data to congratulate Mr. Trump and say he hoped the new president keeps moving Sino-American cooperation forward.