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Eighty percent of Japanese and 39 percent of Chinese oil imports pass through the Indian Ocean en route from the Middle East. Chinese firms also have billions of dollars of investments in East Africa, concentrated primarily in the oil and gas, railways and roads, and other mining sectors.
Robert D. Kaplan, Business Insider: The South China Sea will be the battleground of the future
The South China Sea functions as the throat of the Western Pacific and Indian oceans — the mass of connective economic tissue where global sea routes coalesce.
Here is the heart of Eurasia’s navigable rimland, punctuated by the Malacca, Sunda, Lombok, and Makassar straits.
More than half of the world’s annual merchant fleet tonnage passes through these choke points, and a third of all maritime traffic worldwide.
The oil transported through the Malacca Strait from the Indian Ocean, en route to East Asia through the South China Sea, is triple the amount that passes through the Suez Canal and fifteen times the amount that transits the Panama Canal.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: A good explanation on why the South China Sea is important to everyone.
Update: Vietnam has a plan to control their part of the South China Sea .... Vietnam’s Master Plan for the South China Sea (The Diplomat)
2 comments:
Again the press demonstrates it's grasp of the blazingly obvious.
Here is a simple and easy solution for all parties in the SCS dispute. It would give China world wide respect as a legitimate law biding international player and heal the rift between regional players and the Chinese, and should be followed immediately by other players.
A. China ends expansion outside of accepted international 200 mile territorial limits.
B. Hand over the keys to the 'new islands' to the United Nations, to be jointly managed by a special maritime authority. Consider all work thus far as a gift of the Chinese people to the shared freedom of navigation pursuits of all nations of the world.
C. China their local stake holder and all FON protectors, come together in applauding the generous gift from the Chines people.
D. The regional stakeholders create a binding agreement on sharing all resources that fall outside of the established maritime economic borders.
E. China is welcomed by the international community as a player by the rules.
F. As a reward for their generous change of course in the SCS, they receive a one time permanent extension to their non conflicting maritime border. If it is 200 miles now, they will be allowed to go out legitimately to 250 miles in non conflicted maritime borders.
Problem solved there, and the same strategy could work in ECS.
One insurmountable problem. China doesn't have any interest in being a planetary team player. Therefore problem will probably be solved by conflict!
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