23/5/2018 Why China’s Land Grab Is Backfiring on Beijing – Foreign Policy

REPORT

Why China’s Land Grab Is

Backfiring on Beijing
Beijing is alarming its neighbors by building artificial islands in the South China Sea.
From Tokyo to Jakarta, countries in the region are pushing back hard.
BY DAN DE LUCE, C.K. HICKEY, KEITH JOHNSON | DECEMBER 7, 2015, 4:29 PM

J
apan is jettisoning decades of World War II pacifism. Communist Vietnam is
buying arms from the United States, its old enemy. The Philippines is inviting
U.S. forces back 25 years after kicking them out. Even tiny Singapore is getting in
on the action, allowing U.S. Navy surveillance aircraft to use bases on its territory.

The culprit? China, whose expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea are
triggering a wary and at times angry response by neighbors from Tokyo to Jakarta.
Alarmed at what they see as Beijing’s bid to dominate the strategic waterway, nations
there are spending billions on ships, submarines, planes, and other military hardware
and actively seeking closer defense ties with Washington and with each other.

That’s good news for the Obama administration, whose vaunted “rebalance to Asia” has
been hampered by upheaval in the Middle East. Now, China’s land grab is rejuvenating
the American effort, clearing the way for the United States to sell billions of advanced
weaponry to China’s neighbors, while spending $250 million of its own money on new
hardware like patrol ships, better surveillance, and communications gear.

Here is an interactive map that illustrates why so many countries are worried about
China’s actions in the South China Sea. From Hainan Island just off the Chinese coast to
militarized outposts in the Spratly and Paracel island groups, China has sketched a
triangle of potential domination which could enable air defense zones, aggressive naval
patrols, and radar and air defense stations.

This second interactive map shows what China’s neighbors are doing in response to
Beijing’s land grab.

Dan De Luce is Foreign Policy’s chief national security correspondent. @dandeluce

ByHickey
C.K. using this website,
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Los Angeles, C.K. flirted with television as an FX Networks production intern until technology and journalism wooed him away. Prior to FP, he

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23/5/2018 Why China’s Land Grab Is Backfiring on Beijing – Foreign Policy

honed his writing and coding skills at Salon, Current TV, KQED, and the Virginian-Pilot. C.K.’s interactive documentary, The Town: Reckoning at
Mammoth Lakes, won a Digital Storymakers Award from the Atavist in 2013, and he won four Virginia Press Association awards for features he
produced at the Pilot. C.K. has worked at FP since 2015. When not developing projects like Global Thinkers, he’s probably cooking, playing his
piano, hiking, or watching old movies. @seekayhickey
Keith Johnson is Foreign Policy’s global geoeconomics correspondent. @KFJ_FP

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TAGS: ASIA/PACIFIC, CHINA, MAPS, MILITARY, REPORT, SOUTH CHINA SEA, UNITED STATES COMMENTS

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