Quote Originally Posted by Ray View Post
Calmness comes when one has a grip over the events. Letting things drift with benign and sublime indifference and Buddha like calmness is an ideal mixture that can be catastrophic.
What would you propose that one do, beyond clutching the pearls and rending the occasional garment? I'm not suggesting indifference, but proclaiming "encirclement" where no such thing exists or is threatened is hardly a productive approach to anything. Chinese aid to Jamaica or arms sales to Ecuador or energy investments in Canada or port management contracts in the Bahamas pose no threat to the US. The US has no reasonable way to prevent them and no real reason to prevent them. What's to be gained by hyperventilating over them.

Quote Originally Posted by Ray View Post
Those who are aware of events are also aware of the Scarborough Shoal being just ONE of the events, amongst the many that have been taking place serially around the periphery of China and its self assigned claim lines. I am sure I would not have to enumerate them, they being known to all in the know of international events.
Yes, we are all aware of the events. It's still hard to see them in any light that would constitute an "insatiable quest for hegemonic and imperialist acquisitions". That's a term that one might apply to, say, the US binge of 1898, which saw the annexation of Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippines. The Chinese effort to grab a few uninhabitable rocks hardly seems in the same league. Is it a threat to the US? Is there something the US can or should do about it? If so, what?