China claims the Spratlys in South China Sea

[Rorschach]

Just this week China displayed its military might in the South China sea, it has been building military bases in the Spratlys there for years even though their claim is before the courts and it appears the Philippines own them.

China have just challenged 3 Australian navy ships in the SCC and demanded to know where they were going.

Here is a look at China's overreach...



The world needs to do something about this and fast.

[Black Orchid]

We have a thread on this

[BigP]

Looks like a giant farkin ballbag

[brian ross]

China, indeed has over-reached itself. It has left itself extremely vulnerable to naval blockade. It is highly reliant on overseas resources for raw materials, capital and R&D. With those things, it's economy would falter and die. It only has labour to it's advantage and there are other places, just as cheap and better educated to compete with it. We do not need to respond militarily. Indeed, to do so would be bother stupid and dangerous. We just need to see sanctions imposed. Cut them off from their raw materials, their capital and their R&D and they are helpless.

[Rorschach]

We have a thread on this

No we don't but we have 2 on the RC

[Rorschach]

China, indeed has over-reached itself. It has left itself extremely vulnerable to naval blockade. It is highly reliant on overseas resources for raw materials, capital and R&D. With those things, it's economy would falter and die. It only has labour to it's advantage and there are other places, just as cheap and better educated to compete with it. We do not need to respond militarily. Indeed, to do so would be bother stupid and dangerous. We just need to see sanctions imposed. Cut them off from their raw materials, their capital and their R&D and they are helpless.

I don't recall anyone saying we need to do anything militarily.... so i guess no one is stupid.

Did not the Philippines take China to court about this?

China has said it will not accept a ruling against it in a key international legal case over strategic reefs and atolls that Beijing claims would give it control over disputed waters of the South China Sea.

The judgment by an international tribunal in The Hague came down overwhelmingly in favour of claims by the Philippines and is likely to increase global diplomatic pressure on Beijing to scale back military expansion in the area. By depriving certain outcrops of territorial-generating status, the ruling from the permanent court of arbitration effectively punches holes in China’s all-encompassing “nine-dash” line that stretches deep into the South China Sea.

So China turns its nose up to the International Court... then what is the next step?

[brian ross]

So China turns its nose up to the International Court... then what is the next step?

We impose sanctions. China is, as I have pointed out, extremely vulnerable. It is highly dependent on raw materials from overseas. All sea transport needs to come past either Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan or Japan. If necessary, we then impose naval enforcement of the sanctions. The existing South China Sea trade route just needs to be routed out into the Pacific, China will be powerless to stop that and it will be powerless to force other countries to trade with it. Western investment needs to be directed to India, Africa, South America - where labour is cheap and the population reasonably well educated or educable.

[Rorschach]

Yes I already came up with a reroute...
I also already suggested a global response was necessary.
However Vietnam and other countries still require shipping to enter the South China Sea.

[brian ross]

Yes I already came up with a reroute...
I also already suggested a global response was necessary.
However Vietnam and other countries still require shipping to enter the South China Sea.

Vietnam can trade via Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). That means trade can enter the South China Sea from the South, from Malaysia, just it does for Cambodia and Thailand.

[Rorschach]

So basically you are abandoning the Philippines and conceding the South China Sea to the Chinese, and limiting navigation to coastal waters.