China's South China Sea Strategy: Win the Perception Battle

China's South China Sea Strategy: Win the Perception Battle

06/28/14

Harry J. Kazianis

South China Sea, China

Editor's Note: The following article first appeared at the University of Nottingham's China Policy Institute blog here. 

With the United States once again preoccupied with events in the Middle East China has made another strategic adjustment to its claims in the South China Sea. It seems clear by now that Beijing has found a new way to bolster its position in what Stratfor analyst Robert D. Kaplan has dubbed Asia’s Cauldron. China’s plan: why provoke your neighbors with raw military might, or the outright taking of claimed territory, when you can use oil rigs and maps to achieve the same strategic aims?

While China’s crafty placement of an oil rig off Vietnam’s coast—with fears several more might be in the offing—has been in the news for the past month or so, it is Beijing’s latest ploy that should make Asia watchers more concerned.

Read full articlehttp://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/chinas-south-china-sea-strategy-win-the-perception-battle-10776