China will protect its sovereignty over South China Sea: Pundit

The United States is attempting to exert hegemony in China's own backyard, but Beijing will remain steadfast in protecting its sovereignty over the South China Sea, says Professor Dennis Etler, an American political analyst who has a decades-long interest in international affairs.

Etler, a professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Friday, after China warned the US that it will protect its sovereignty in the South China Sea.

“China will firmly safeguard the sovereignty and related rights in the South China Sea,” Chinese President Xi Jinping reportedly told US President Barack Obama in a meeting on Thursday in Washington, DC.

Beijing claims sovereignty over almost the whole of the South China Sea, which is also claimed in part by Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines. The waters are believed to sit atop vast reserves of oil and gas.

Washington has sided with China’s rivals in the territorial dispute, with Beijing accusing the US of meddling in the regional issues and deliberately stirring up tensions in the South China Sea.

America’s defensive cordon sanitaire

“After WW2, with the defeat of Imperial Japan, the US had complete domination of the entire Pacific Ocean from California to the first tier of island nations east of the Asian mainland. A string of forward US military bases was established on Pacific island nations from Japan though Taiwan to the Philippines,” Professor Etler said.

“This was portrayed by the US as a defensive cordon sanitaire against the spread of Communism, but it actually served as a forward military position to not only contain Communist China but press for the rollback of communism on the Korean peninsula and the Southeast Asian mainland. Its ultimate objective was the defeat of Communism and the dismemberment of China,” he added.

“This objective was manifested by US aggression on the Korean Peninsula and in Southeast Asia that led to the devastation of multiple countries, including Korea, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia and anti-communist pogroms in the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. All told countless millions were slaughtered and the region's development was thwarted for decades on end,” he continued.

“The US attempt to rollback the national liberation struggles of the people of the Asian-Pacific region was however stopped in its tracks by the heroic resistance of the Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese people who made untold sacrifices to restore their independence and sovereignty, after centuries of European colonialism,” the analyst stated.

US inherits imperialist realm of Japanese Empire

“After WW2, the US inherited not only the colonial mandate of the vanquished European powers, but the imperialist realm of the defeated Japanese Empire. The US through its navy and air-force held sway over the entire Asian-Pacific region. The major foreign policy question of the era was in fact ‘who lost China’ as it was the People's Republic of China which was the single impediment to complete US hegemony not only in the Asian-Pacific region but on the East Asian mainland as well,” Professor Etler said.

“After its defeat in the war in Vietnam the US largely withdrew from the region. ASEAN, formed as a bulwark against Communism in 1967, transformed into a regional coalition with the admittance of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Brunei. With China's raise as an economic power its relations with ASEAN became intertwined. It is this situation that the US wishes to sabotage economically, politically and militarily. The Asian pivot, combined with the TPP free trade treaty, is meant to counter Chinese influence in the region by sowing discord and escalating tensions,” he stated.

“Throughout this period and until the present, the Chinese nation as represented by both the Republic of China on Taiwan and the People's Republic of China on the mainland has maintained a consistent and historically validated claim to the South China Sea. As a victor against Imperial Japan in WW2, the islands and atolls occupied by Japan in the South China Sea were returned to Chinese sovereignty,” the commentator said.   

Why US challenges Chinese sovereignty

“The assertion of Chinese sovereignty over the South China Sea was never a question of major international concern until recently. Other nations in the region began to claim sovereignty over various sectors of the South China Sea despite China's longstanding claims. While China protested against these actions, sometimes leading to open conflict, the pot only simmered, it never reached the boiling point,” Professor Etler said.

“China throughout the last half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century did not attempt to aggressively press its claims in the South China Sea. It allowed other nations to impinge on its declared sovereignty by engaging in island reclamation and building military bases on some atolls. Although having prior claim to these territories China to a large extent allowed for the maintenance of the status quo. China has long said that the disputes in the region should be resolved by bilateral negotiations by the concerned parties,” he pointed out.

“It was however the self-proclaimed Asian pivot of the Obama administration and the US attempt to exert hegemony in China's own backyard that has upended the apple cart and forced China to become more proactive in asserting its sovereignty over the South China Sea. As Chinese President Xi Jinping has repeatedly stated to the US on numerous occasions, China will remain steadfast and resolute in defending its sovereignty in the South China Sea,” the academic noted. 

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