Originally Posted by
Dayuhan
The point I'm trying to make is that there is no will to "back it up". Do you really think the US is going to dispatch military forces to eject a Chinese fishing fleet from Scarborough Shoal, or to prevent China from bidding out an oil exploration block in waters claimed by Vietnam, or to evict a Chinese garrison from an island in the Paracels?
You suggest that we tell the Chinese that their claim is unacceptable and the SCS must remain international waters. So what? Just words. The Chinese will respond, inevitably, that there is no "claim" involved, and the territory involved is in fact theirs. They will probably step things up a bit: send a huge fishing fleet off the Philippine coast, plant some more flags and bunkers on a few more rocks, bid out some more exploration blocks. Then what do you do? That's the predictable, expected response, so what's your next move?