Greg Sheridan, The Australian: Nuclear submarines raise the stakes in the South China Sea
If you think things are a bit willing in the South China Sea now, after the US sailed the USS Lassen within 12 nautical miles of Beijing’s artificially created establishment on Subi Reef, wait until China moves nuclear weapons into the region, later this year or early next year.
First of all, though, let’s not panic. Beijing is certainly a rational actor and has generally avoided giant blunders. Just lately it has undertaken a number of reassuring moves and gestures.
It sent Premier Li Keqiang to participate in a three-way summit with South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Seoul. It was not necessary for Abe to climb down from any of Japan’s recent strategic positions for this summit to proceed successfully.
WNU Editor: An Australian view on the growing militarization of the South China Sea.
1 comment:
WNU,
I would imagine the Chinese will wait (time and geography are on their side here) until they feel militarily and politically confident enough to move against any vessels in this area. Then we'll have an incident with an unarmed commercial (fishing etc) boat either rammed or sunk by the Chinese, who will then dare the world to do anything about it. I'm not familiar with the weather in this area, but I assume this will happen within the next six months and in generally clear weather allowing Chinese air involvement.
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