Game of Thrones: Sri Lanka Imprisons 39 Chinese Fishermen

[Valin]

Via Meadia: Walter Russell Mead

8/7/12

 

 

 

Not content with being a thorn in the side of China’s suspicious neighbors in Vietnam and the Philippines, Chinese fishermen are starting to annoy China’s close friends as well, Reuters reports:

 

(Snip)

 

Chinese outlets had reported that the prisoners had been released, but on Monday Sri Lanka reasserted that they remained in prison.

 

China is Sri Lanka’s most important investor and was a close ally during its diplomatic spat with India and the U.S. over a war crimes investigation stemming from the Sri Lankan civil war. The Sri Lankan government doesn’t want to jeopardize that friendship, but it does want to send a message to Beijing: Don’t fish in our waters. China has heard this message quite a bit these days from a number of its neighbors, but it’s a message it apparently has no intention of heeding.

 

 

Folks might want to read Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power

Robert D Kaplan

 

From Booklist

An inveterate traveler and author, Kaplan recently toured the rim of the Indian Ocean to inspect its geopolitics. Perspectives on the balance of power vary from country to country and speaker to speaker, but most agree that India and China are the ascending powers in the region. As Kaplan’s passages about Indian Ocean history reflect, the two countries can refer to tradition (to the fifteenth-century fleets of Zheng He, in China’s case) for their contemporary activities in the Indian Ocean, but the plain fact is they are busy for one reason: access to resources. As Kaplan journeys from Oman to Pakistan to Burma and Indonesia, the specific raw material comes into focus, as does the geopolitical angle of safely shipping it to the interested country. Touching on what could threaten maritime traffic, such as piracy, ethnic conflicts, or hostile control of choke points like the Strait of Malacca, Kaplan is guardedly optimistic that interested powers, including the U.S., can benignly manage their Indian Ocean affairs. A better-informed world-affairs reader will be the result of Kaplan’s latest title. --Gilbert Taylor

[Valin]

Beijing Leadership Adopts Hard Line on South China Sea

August 13, 2012

 

 

At a handsome new building on Hainan Island, the headquarters of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, a video is played to visitors. As Jane Perlez writes for the NYT:

 

The video says that China enjoys maritime rights over “a vast area” of the South China Sea, though it does not specify how much. The 1.4 million square miles of the sea are “crucial to the future of China as a growing maritime nation,” since the sea is a trade conduit between China and the United States, Africa and Europe, the video says.

 

This view that the South China Sea is “crucial” for China’s security and economy is becoming common not only in the talking points of a few hardliners but also at the highest levels of China’s political and military leadership. As the country prepares for a leadership change later this year, it is vital for Chinese elites not to be seen as weak on matters of such importance.

 

At stake are oil reserves believed to be almost equal to Saudi Arabia’s. Already China, the Philippines, and Vietnam are selling territorial blocks to international oil companies like Exxon Mobil for exploration even though ownership over those areas is undetermined.