I hope more countries wake up to what China is trying to do. Artificial island, Rohingya-cleansing, Sri Lanka airport etc. Its just the beginning, we need to be prepared.
I'm Australian, so I follow the South China Sea closely.
The US seems to have completely abandoned doing anything in the South China Sea.
I mean - Trump talks a lot about China, but has done nothing to slow the Chinese build up there.
Here's a recent article about how the Chinese have finished their fortifications on one of their artificial islands (which are pretty impressive!): http://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/photos-reveal-c...
It would require war, a near-war, or very large scale sanctions. A group of dozens of major economies would have to impose trade consequences. And even that might not deter China, given how badly they appear to want to annex that territory.
What bollocks. Freedom of navigation operations are a light-touch manoeuvre that still pisses off Beijing [1]. Economically embracing China’s neighbours (as TPP tried to do) and bolstering the militaries of Taiwan, the Philippines and other threatened democracies is another reasonable step.
[1] https://thediplomat.com/2017/08/south-china-sea-us-navy-cond...
In case you're not aware, China isn't even in the top 10 exporters of steel into the USA[0], so please don't say steel tariffs.
[0] https://www.trade.gov/steel/countries/pdfs/imports-us.pdf
There is also a closer relationship with Taiwan and new bills being made to apporve sale of weapons.
The american ships and aircrafts have also ignored the territory of the artificial islands sending signal to all the commerical boats that the water is for everybody to use.
Selling arms to Taiwan isn't new. There's the Taiwan Relations Act Affirmation and Naval Vessel Transfer Act of 2014 and an arms deal signed under Obama in 2015 for $1.83 billion (1).
Sailing within the 12 nautical miles of the man-made Chinese islands also happened under Obama (2).
(1) https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-taiwan-arms/obama-adm...
(2) https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/us-warship-sails-within...
https://www.wsj.com/article_email/chinese-billionaire-linked...
> https://www.wsj.com/article_email/chinese-billionaire-linked...
What about aluminum? What is your question, and how is your link related to it?
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_island_chain
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_of_Pearls_(Indian_Ocean...
> the US holding the first island chain
Come on, the US doesn't hold Japan. They're allies.
> Without a foothold in the South China Sea
China already has a foothold in the South China Sea: it's coast, Hainan, etc.
If one day germany, japan or south korea were to decide to have referendum to remove US troops and get majority vote, I am sure US would remove their troops. So in short: no, US is not holding a gun to them because the other countries are certainly enjoying US nuclear and military umbrella protecting their territory.
Yes, they 100% have a choice. Why do you think otherwise? They're US allies and they benefit from the situation.
Another poster pointed out that they benefit from this arrangement by not having to spend so much on their domestic militaries to protect themselves.
Another point: in the case of South Korea and Germany, the US military helps protect those countries from the real threats of invasion. South Korea is still technically at war. For 50 years US soldiers eyed Soviet soldiers across the inner German border, and closely worked with West Germany and NATO to be prepare if those soldiers ever crossed over.
You have a very odd, binary perspective on international relations that seems to preclude win-win military cooperation.
Would you please be concise and more elaborative about what you mean?