US action in South China Sea provocative: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed William Jones, a member of the Executive Intelligence Review in Leesburg, to discuss US military build-up in the South China Sea.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: If we are looking at what the US wants to do, this would be a serious case for alarm because of the fact that this type of patrol would invite perhaps some kind of incursion amongst the two countries, some type of accident, unprovoked accident and we know that those types of incidents could lead to war.

Jones: Absolutely and it is a very provocative action and it is meant to be very provocative. The Chinese have legitimate rights to these islands. Obviously there are some disputes because when they were isolated during the communist period, a lot of what they were entitled to earlier and where they had a historic presence, they were deprived of and now as they have become a major nation in the world they are looking back at what was their territorial rights and they are making some claims and they have to be resolved but they have good title to that.

The United States has said that they did not want to get involved; they are not a claimant in the area. Nevertheless, they have been provoking, they have been giving great support to the opponents of China on these claims, encouraging them to take a harder stance, making it more and more difficult to negotiate a solution and now they are actually saying quite clearly as President Obama said, ‘Ee reserve the right to go anywhere we want in the world’.

I mean this is a pretty arrogant statement being made in a situation as very dangerous and as you indicated this can lead to some sort of a military conflict blowing up into a full-scale war.

Press TV: Do you ever get the feeling that the countries in the region who are US allies and you know them very well, I am sure, are playing a game where they have to please China but at the same time they also have to please the US because both are very big trading partners for them so it is hard to take a middle ground with this but they are trying to please both? Do you think this scenario is playing out?  

Jones: Well I think the problem is with the United States. I do not think there is a problem in coming to agreements for these countries with the Chinese and with the US if there was a more balanced position being taken by the US. If the US were in agreement with trying to resolve or play an actual neutral or even a positive role in trying to resolve some of these crises situations, I think the other countries would be easy to come on board but at this point the US policy is simply to contain China.

They won’t say that openly, they will deny it to their last breath but at the same time what they are doing on the ground is trying to create a cordon sanitaire of the old alliances aimed primarily against China and this is what China understands.

The other countries are probably not always entirely happy in playing that role but because of the power of the United States and the treaties that have been signed, they are really forced into that kind of situation. If they were allowed to go on their own in terms of negotiating with China, I think these territorial disputes could be resolved. China has resolved all of its territorial disputes in terms of its land borders and I think it can also be done in terms of the maritime borders if the United States does not take the attitude that we are the policemen, we can go everywhere we want and we determine the rules.

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