U.S. Still Searching For A South China Sea Strategy

Financial Times: US struggles for strategy to contain China’s island-building

China’s efforts to dredge new land on remote coral atolls in the South China Sea have left the US struggling to come up with a response.

For Washington, Chinese land-creation has helped make allies of former adversaries now fearful of military domination by an assertive China. The latest example was the trip to Vietnam last week by Ashton Carter, US defence secretary, who pledged US patrol craft to the Vietnamese navy.

But there is a limit to how far countries in the region are willing to present a united front to China, which has reclaimed 2,000 acres of land in the past 18 months, far outstripping all other claimants combined, according to Mr Carter. The Obama administration is also unsure about how strongly it should push back against what US officials see as a long-term Chinese plan to control the region’s waters.

WNU Editor: I am not surprised that the U.S. is having trouble developing a South China Sea strategy .... our own allies in the region are not even united in countering China's claims in the region.