U.S. talk stays cheap

A delayed reaction by the US to the new Chinese propaganda offensive may prove fatal to the region.

China’s release of a new map expanding its maritime area within a “10-dash line” that includes the West Philippine Sea has been condemned by the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, Brunei, and Vietnam.

Conspicuously absent from the first responders was the United States which had earlier issued a brave warning that it would protect the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.

The US had said it would protect international ship passage in one of the world’s most contested waterways, where more than $3 trillion in trade passes each year.

China on Monday released a new version of its infamous U-shaped dashed line that now covers about 90 percent of the South China Sea, including Taiwan which it regards as a renegade province.

In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague invalidated the so-called historic “nine-dash line” claim of China, but Beijing made it clear that it did not recognize the decision and insisted on bilateral agreements with other claimants to settle territorial conflicts.

China holds to its position that its sovereignty and rights in the South China Sea were established throughout the long course of history, claiming that this was “duly recognized by international treaties and accords which are not to be infringed upon by any illegal awards.”

China instead accused the Philippines of taking unilateral action to initiate the arbitration that “breached its bilateral agreement with China to settle relevant disputes in the South China Sea through negotiation.”

It claimed that this commitment was also contained in the non-binding Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea signed by China and the ASEAN countries, including the Philippines, in 2002.

Beijing, however, has continuously put a damper on concluding the Code of Conduct that ASEAN has been pushing to finally settle the conflicting claims.

The presence of American forces appeared to have deterred  China from making good on its “historical” claims that are continuously expanding.

A delayed reaction by the US to the new Chinese propaganda offensive may prove fatal to the region.

Dean Cheng, a senior advisor to the China program in the government-backed US Institute of Peace, observed that Beijing has been gambling on American willingness or lack of it to confront China’s “salami-slicing tactics against its neighbors.”

Cheng recalled that in 2012, the United States persuaded the Philippines to withdraw from Scarborough Shoal “while making no effort to compel the People’s Republic of China to do the same. In effect, Washington forced Manila to cede that set of features to the PRC.”

Cheng recounted how this was followed by a three-year hiatus in US freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, which he noted was an absence “that coincided with massive Chinese construction on features it controlled.”

For the United States to once again fail to counter the latest Chinese efforts “would reinforce a perception of American withdrawal,” Cheng pointed out.

He warned of the possible consequences if the US continues to waffle on its position regarding China’s increasing aggressiveness.

“If the United States were to not respond, its credibility as an ally would be called into question, certainly by Manila. The various efforts to renew US access to Philippine facilities under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, especially in the event of a Taiwan contingency, will certainly falter. Why should the Philippines support American efforts to support Taiwan if the United States won’t support the Philippines?” Cheng said.

If recent events were the basis, the Philippines has always been made to suffer the backlash of Washington policies in the region, such as the Asian pivot of former President Barack Obama.

The Philippine government was made to support the American program but was left in the lurch when the going got tough.

The US still has to prove that it walks the talk on its supposed protection of the region from predatory actions.

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Credit belongs to: tribune.net.ph