China to the world: what are you going to do about it?

classic imperialism

I’m going to start this with a great anchor line from our friend Ray Powell;

This is a campaign of maritime occupation by a hostile, expansionist, imperial power.

Weakness invites aggression. Appeasement accelerates it.

There is absolute clarity what the People’s Republic of China is doing. There is also absolute clarity that no one on the international stage has the will or the ability to do anything about it.

The dispute over Scarborough Shoal is not new. China seized control of the feature in 2012, but it largely remained accessible to most fishermen in the years afterwards. The famous 2016 arbitration ruling in Philippines v. China--while it did not rule on the territorial dispute over the shoal--declared that traditional fishing rights must be respected by all parties. China rejected the ruling, and has recently changed the facts on the water so that the feature is essentially under a tight quarantine enforced by aggressive blocking, swarming, ramming, and use of long-range acoustic devices and water cannons:

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There is a similarly bleak picture down in the Spratly Islands where China, from its artificial island base at Mischief Reef (seized 1994, militarized 2015-16), now restricts Philippine access to its own outpost at Second Thomas Shoal using the same techniques as above, though after 18 months of escalation and turmoil things have now settled into a shaky truce that has allowed the Philippine Navy very limited access since July of this year.

At the same, however, China has forcibly seized effective control of nearby Sabina Shoal, which lies just 75 nautical miles from the Philippine coastline. China solidified its control after the Philippine Coast Guard was forced to withdraw its anchored BRP Teresa Magbanua in September following a five-month standoff, in which the ship was essentially starved out and attempts to resupply it were again met with similarly violent tactics.

If you think this behavior by the PRC is bad now, remember how relatively benign they were five to ten years ago. Mark where they are now. Then project that to 2030 and 2035.

Why should they stop?

Ray has a lot more information and some solid videos at the link. Check it out.