My experience in dealing with the South China (West PHL) sea issue

ELEVEN years after my verbal exchanges with the Chinese head of delegation at the ARF ISG/CBM meeting in Bangkok in early March 1999, I was elated to learn that the South China (West Philippine) Sea issue has escalated to the level of ministers. The escalation was caused by two developments.

In March 2010, Beijing told the visiting US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg that the South China Sea is now considered one of China’s “core national interest,” making it at par with Taiwan and Tibet. The following month, Rear Admiral Zhang Huachen, deputy commander of China’s East Sea Fleet, declared that his country’s naval strategy had shifted “from coastal defense to far sea defense” covering three stages, the first of which would encompass the “first island chain” including islands from Japan to Taiwan to the Philippines. This has made the South China Sea the first battleground.