Whatever Is Behind China's Spratly Island Showdown, It Isn't Drilling For Oil

[Casino67]

Forbes:

China is building airbases in the Spratly Islands of the South China Sea, dredging sand and dirt to create 2,000 acres of land where little more than rocky reefs existed before. Its biggest project is on Mischief Island, which sits less than 150 miles off the Philippines’ Palawan Island but is 600 miles from China’s own Hainan Island. Like virtually all the of the Spratlys, Mischief is claimed by more than one country. China says it owns them all. The United States objects.

 

China is ratcheting up the tension in the Spratlys. China’s nationalist, Communist Party-controlled Global Times tabloid wrote this week that war between China and the United States would be “inevitable” if Washington continued to insist that Beijing stop its construction project. Yesterday China’s ambassador to Australia wrote an opinion piece for The West Australian newspaper that asserted China’s “indisputable sovereignty” over the islands.

 

All this over a bunch of islands? It sounds crazy. Why should we even care about the Spratly Islands?