Bill:

I got to thinking about something. Let's say an American oil company got a lease in a disputed territory and began drilling. One side or the other got mad and sent a warship in the direction of the rig. I don't think the oil company would call on the navy from the country from whom they obtained the lease for protection, they would call on the U.S. Navy to save them. Politically it would be suicide to call on say, the PLAN to save them. That would not look at all good. If somebody took a lease and got in trouble, the American Navy would be involved whether it wanted to be or not. That ploy by the Red Chinese will complicate things a lot.

The more I think about this, the more I think there will be some fighting, maybe serious, in the next few or 5 years unless Red China backs off. They seem to think they can figure with enough certainty what other people will do to avoid it but that never works out. You probably know the countries in the area well enough. Who do you think will have had enough first? I figure Vietnam, only because I am old enough to remember how hard they can be when they want to be.