The Growing Geopolitical Influence Of The South China Seas

In The South China Sea, Two Superpowers Flex Their Muscles -- Globe and Mail

The Scarborough Shoal, a triangle of rocks and reefs in the South China Sea, is so small that much of it disappears underwater at high tide. And yet for the past seven weeks it has been the epicentre of a growing naval crisis, with China and the Philippines each dispatching ships and warning the other that it won’t back away from the minuscule atoll.

Some say the South China Sea is a maritime version of Central Asia during the “Great Game,” the 19th-century era in which empires jousted using proxy armies without ever coming into direct conflict. In Central Asia, it was Russia and Britain that duelled from the shadows. In today’s South China Sea, it’s the world’s latest superpowers, China and the United States, competing over waters that produce one-10th of the world’s fish, transit a third of the world’s shipping and – if higher-end estimates are accurate – might hold up to 100 billion barrels of oil and six trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Read more ....

My Comment: With trillions of dollars at stake .... and China keen to develop energy resources that will help to make them independent from unstable Middle East suppliers .... the Chinese have drawn a red line on the South China Seas.