Chinese

geopolitics
Island Chain Strategy was formulated
in 1951 by John Foster Dulles, to
contain the erstwhile USSR and China
with a string of naval bases in the
western Pacific region to restrict sea
access to these two countries.
On January 02, 2019 Xi Jinping announced that Taiwan will
be taken back by 2050.
The First Island Chain comprises the Kuril
Islands, the Japanese Archipelago,
Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, northwest
Philippines and ending at Borneo.
This chain is also the first line of defence
and serves as the maritime boundaries
between the East China Sea and the
Philippine Sea and the South China Sea
and the Sulu Sea.
In this chain are located the Bashi
Channel and the Miyako Strait which
are critical chokepoints for China.
The Second Island Chain consists of the Bonin Islands,
Volcano Islands, Mariana Islands, western Caroline
Islands and Western New Guinea. This chain is the
eastern maritime boundary of the Philippine Sea. USA
has Compacts of Free Association (COFAs)
agreements with Palau, Marshall Islands and
Micronesia;
The Third Island Chain refers to the
Aleutian Islands running through the
centre of the Pacific Ocean through
the Hawaiian Islands, American
Samoa, and Fiji culminating at New
Zealand. In this chain New Zealand-
Tonga-Hawaii plays an important
role..
The Fourth Island Chain proposes to have the Lakshadweep
Islands, Maldives, Diego Garcia with Gwadar and
Hambantota in Pakistan and Sri Lanka respectively.
The Fifth Island Chain is planned to originate from
Camp Lemonnier in the Gulf of Aden, around the
Horn of Africa, along the East African coastline,
through the Mozambique Channel towards South
Africa with the aim of encircling the Chinese naval
bases in Doraleh and Djibouti.