U.S.-China Super-Power Collision Looming in South China Sea

Reports of untapped oil and gas reserves have kept tensions up around the waters of the South China Sea.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent passage through South-east Asia saw Washington close ranks with its former adversary Vietnam, sending a warning to Asian heavyweight China that its assertive foreign policy in the region will be challenged.

he diplomatic battleground is the South China Sea, a stretch of ocean that has a spread of reefs, coral atolls and slender slivers of land that hardly qualify as habitable islands but for decades have been the subject of a territorial dispute in the region.

This stretch of sea washes the coasts of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and China, which have overlapping territorial claims in the area. Over the years, China has used military force to have a toehold on the often-submerged spits of land.

Reports of untapped oil and gas reserves have kept tensions up around the waters of the South China Sea, including the Paracel Islands archipelago and the Spratly Islands, which are also key shipping lanes.

Full Story: U.S.-China Super-Power Collision Looming in South China Sea | World | AlterNet.

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