U.S. Creates Conflicts Around China

China has infuriated Washington and many countries in the region by creating artificial islands in disputed areas of the South China Sea and building airfields on them, an ongoing effort likely to be front and center when President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet later this week. He is the author of six national security books.

“The best sign of respecting the freedom of the seas is not to de facto recognize a 12-mile limit”, McCain added, urging US forces to sail right up to the disputed islands. Instead of escalating the hot conflict in the region with an aim to militarize it, the US should “pack its bags” and “go home”, the analyst believes.

Hong said the situation in the South China Sea was generally stable, and Beijing was having bilateral talks with nations concerned to resolve the disputes, as well as working with Asean nations to safeguard peace and stability in the area.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter warned earlier this year that due to the revised military agreement between Japan and the USA , any attempt from China to dispute Japan’s claims on the Senkaku Islands (China calls them the Diaoyudao Islands) will be regarded as an attack on US interests.

China has repeatedly claimed its “indisputable sovereignty” over the Spratly Islands. Those deliberations come after the current and former heads of Pacific Command recommended resuming patrols inside the 12-mile boundary around key areas in the South China Sea.

China is Australia’s biggest trading partner.

Adm. Harry Harris, the current head of Pacific Command, who has described Beijing’s reclamation activities as the construction of a “great wall of sand”, said last week he favored patrolling within the 12-mile boundary in some cases, including around the Fiery Cross Reef, where the Chinese are constructing a runway.

The island building has been underway for years and was largely ignored by the Obama administration until tensions among the regional states, mainly Vietnam and Philippines, increased several years ago.

Although the Washington does not directly identify Beijing as its enemy, China is definitely the reason for the growing militarization of the U.S.in the region, according to Cunningham.

And the volume level of United States and Chinese military posturing on the matter is increasing.

Harris was quick to note that the Chinese military bases in the sea are “easy targets in war”.

Washington interferes in territorial disputes, accuses China and steps up its military supports for other countries of the region at the same time.

The attempted Beijing takeover of the South China Sea has followed a low-profile, step-by-step approach that gradually asserted Chinese authority over scores of disputed reefs and islets at two main locations: the Paracels in the north and the Spratlys in the south. The Chinese during recent years were careful to only use vessels from their six paramilitary maritime law enforcement services in challenging non-Chinese vessels, while keeping PLA naval forces mostly out of the public eye.