China's Real South China Sea Mistake ( Source- The National Interest / Author- Elizabith C. Economy)
PLAN Type-71 Changbaishan ( Image source- Wikimedia Commons / Author- Kees Torn) Source- The National Interest Author- Elizabeth C. Economy f the recent Shangri-La Dialogue demonstrated one thing—aside from the fact that Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong can deliver an important speech that is both strong and subtle—it is that mitigating tensions in the South China Sea remains a problem with no solution in sight. As the Chinese have continued with their reef reclamation and low-level militarization of small islands in the South China Sea, a number of Chinese scholars and foreign policy officials have sought to clarify the reasons behind Beijing’s actions. Yet what emerges from all the disparate voices is a sense that there is no compelling rationale—or at least not one that the foreign policy community can acknowledge. Instead, there is significant effort to impute an acceptable rationale to the country’s destabilizing behavior. The past is precedent: Ot