Unfortunately for China, its recent military posturing has obscured the fact that territorial claims in the South China Sea is not only between China and its neighbours but endemic.
WorldTimes: “When it comes to feuds in the Pacific over islands and what lies beneath, it’s not simply a case of China against everyone else. Depending on the dispute, it’s also South Korea vs. Japan, Japan vs. Taiwan, Taiwan vs. Vietnam, Vietnam vs. Cambodia and numerous other permutations — for many of the same reasons supposedly behind China’s actions. Resource grab. Patriotic posturing. Historical baggage (mostly to do with Japan’s brutal occupation of most of East Asia before and through World War II). Referring to the South China Sea, former ASEAN secretary general Rodolfo Severino, who now heads Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, wrote recently that “all claimants feel their footholds are essential to what they consider their national interests … This clash of national interests … makes it most difficult even to appear to be making compromises on national integrity or maritime regimes and, thus, almost impossible to resolve [the] disputes.””
Read more: http://world.time.com/2012/08/19/why-asias-maritime-disputes-are-not-just-about-china/#ixzz29dhhV78F
Related articles
- https://chindia-alert.org/political-factors/geopolitics-chinese/
- Vietnam voices concern over Japan’s Senkaku, Takeshima disputes with China and S. Korea at ASEAN maritime forum (japantimes.co.jp)
- Japan Urges Peace as Neighbors Clash Over Islands (abcnews.go.com)
- Indonesia Seeks Rules of Road for South China Sea (abcnews.go.com)
- * China’s Xi seeks to reassure Southeast Asia on sea dispute (chindia-alert.org)
- You: Senkaku row reverberates across Southeast Asia (japantimes.co.jp)
- Beware the Chinese Sea-Dragon (newstatesman.com)
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