US sea meddling makes trouble for itself
- By Ge Hongliang
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E-mail Global Times, March 3, 2016
Via these measures, Washington has turned the South China Sea into the primary ground of its "rebalancing" policy and come closer to grabbing dominant power in the region. Furthermore, it has made the South China Sea spat become a new conundrum of the China-US strategic game.
As the South China Sea row becomes a new hot potato in the structural contradictions between the two major countries, China is facing growing pressure from international public opinion and the US is drawing ruin upon itself.
It is widely known that the South China Sea issue mainly refers to the rift concerning sovereignty of some islands and maritime demarcation among China and certain Southeast Asian nations. Nonetheless, with the internationalization trend, it has become a strategic, security and diplomatic issue of unusual complexity.
Washington favors Manila, Hanoi and other Southeast Asian claimants and expects ASEAN to play a greater role in its strategy against China. But ASEAN states have all along been practicing a balancing policy between major powers, and not taking a side between Washington and Beijing is one of their basic foreign policies. Moreover, the US' dominant strategy in the South China Sea has been frustrated by ASEAN clinging to its own central position in the region.
Consequently, the White House must render due respect and contribute more resources to ASEAN while insisting on its own principles. The US policy in the South China Sea enormously jeopardizes security in the region; it also increases the likelihood for the sea to become a powder keg in Asia, which requires the US to make more political, economic and military investment to maintain its dominant position.
Apparently, the US, a nation that aspires to defend its global leadership amid economic and strategic transformation, is unwilling to pay much of a price. Therefore, Washington is seeking trouble for itself by intervening in the South China Sea issue. And its next government will have to put in more resources to cope with this legacy of the Obama administration.
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