Tuesday, 27 October 2015

Is US-China relations in jeopardy ?

In a move that signals relations between the US and China could become strained in months to come, the US navy sailed within 12 nautical miles of a man made island built by the Chinese in an effort to claim territorial rights to areas of the South China Sea that encroaches on nations such as Phillipines which the US has strong ties too.

The action prompted Beijing to respond saying

"The actions of the U.S. warship have threatened China’s sovereignty and security interests, jeopardized the safety of personnel and facilities on the reefs, and damaged regional peace and stability" 

This opens up an array of worries between the world's largest economic powerhouses as bad relations could set off a flurry of tit for tat action aimed at flexing political muscles to get the point across. President Obama met Chinese Premier Xi Jinping last month and told him in no uncertain terms that the US will not allow these actions to destabilise peace within the region and will do in it's best to keep it that way.
  

The move represents one of the first major disagreements between the nations after China's ascendency to economic powerdom but certainly won't be the last. The area has been a hotbed of spats between Japan and China with the US stepping up efforts to prevent further action which might throw the region into war.
So why is there so much tension about China building an island? I went researching and found this great site that breaks it all down. Apparently there has always been disputes among Asian countries as to who owns the right to the usage of the sea in the region. However there has been an agreement under international maritime law that gives each nation a claim to a set amount of sea before it gets classified as international waters meaning any nation may travel unhindered through those parts.

But given the close proximity of Asian countries to one another, these territorial claims overlap leading to disputes among them. With China building up dominance in terms of economic activity, they have seemingly thrown their weight around when it comes to staking their claim. So much so it's led to them building an island so as to increase their territorial space that other smaller nations namely the Philippines and Vietnam, will no longer be allowed to use  
This isn't the first time China has trumped on other nations toes with Japan and South Korea experiencing the same in the East China Sea only difference is these nations have enough clout to make China back away while others don't.

A trilateral meeting between the biggest economies in Asia is set to take place in Seoul on Saturday after a 3 year absence after the same disputes involving territories led the parties to call off all formal talks due to tensions. It's certain that much interest will be taken in the meeting to be held on Saturday to ascertain if nations are able to agree on some compromise that makes all parties satisfied but the way it's going it doesn't seem likely.

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