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During the current period of globalization, more than half of global sea-borne trade has  been  going  through  the  South  China  Sea region again  and  has,  as  a  result, promoted development for most of the countries in Asia and many others elsewhere as well. Yet the sea lanes and the maritime domains in the South China Sea region have  been  subjected  to increasing  pressures  and  assertive  behaviors  that  might produce severe constraints to the security and prosperity prospects of many East Asian countries. What are the reasons for this sorry state of affair?

Chinese  officials and  Chinese  press have regularly accused  the  United  States of roiling the current tension by inducing other Asian countries, particularly those in Southeast Asia, to support a new strategy of encirclement or containment against China. For example, when the US State Department expressed concern over China’s establishment  of  a  prefectural-level  city  on  Woody  Island  of  disputed  Paracels Beijing summoned the US embassy’s deputy chief of mission Robert Wang to lodge “strong  dissatisfaction.” The  statement  by  the  read  by  deputy  spokesman  Patrick

Ventrell on August 3, 2012 included the following sentence: “In particular, China’s upgrading  of  the  administrative  level  of Sansha  City  and  establishment  of  a  new military garrison there covering disputed areas of the South China Sea run counter to collaborative diplomatic efforts to resolve differences and risk further escalating tensions in the region.”

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