Beijing is in a somewhat bipolar position; they want to 'be' America but they're not strong enough to fill the vacuum if Pax Americana fumbles on the five yard line (or gets clotheslined by her enemies) and the global economy gets knocked into a tailspin.

If they let this game in the Spratlys go too far, they either get hammered by the US (not good for their investments) or they prevail (also not good for their investments, since that'd be killing the golden goose).

So between this thread and the China-as-a-superpower thread, Beijing is balancing their international image projection versus a mad scramble to harden their internal economy (in case the US self-implodes), all while doing damage control on the growing social stress fractures.

Let's see how that works out for them, Cotton.

Meanwhile,

China scrambled fighter jets on Tuesday as a U.S. navy ship sailed close to a disputed reef in the South China Sea, a patrol China denounced as an illegal threat to peace which only went to show its defense installations in the area were necessary.

Guided missile destroyer the USS William P. Lawrence traveled within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of Chinese-occupied Fiery Cross Reef, U.S. Defense Department spokesman Bill Urban said.

The so-called freedom of navigation operation was undertaken to "challenge excessive maritime claims" by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam which were seeking to restrict navigation rights in the South China Sea, Urban said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-so...-idUSKCN0Y10DM

Also, oops.

A navy spokesperson, Liang Yang, said in a statement that the jet, belonging to the East Sea Fleet, crashed into a sewing machine factory while conducting a night training session at about 7.30pm.

The pilot ejected from the aircraft safely and nobody was injured in the incident, according to Liang.
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/socie...-eastern-china

Quote Originally Posted by Bill Moore View Post
We can make hard choices now, or harder choices later.
I think that die is already cast.