Unity under threat at summits

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ANALYSIS: There will be plenty of smiling for the cameras at the Asean and East Asia meetings, but no one will be willing to make any real compromises on South China Sea territorial disputes

Published: 17 Nov 2012 at 00.00
Newspaper section: News

Asean and China will be looking to play down fears of open conflict over South China Sea territorial disputes at tomorrow's Asean summit and the following East Asia summit.

In reality, the bottom line remains unchanged, despite recent dialogue.

There is no guarantee the disputes will not once again threaten Asean unity, this time with Southeast Asian heads of state suffering the same fate as their foreign ministers did four months ago.

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peterl
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Discussion 4 : 17 Nov 2012 at 18.494
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Has China adopted a covert divide and rule strategy to negate ASEAN's influence in the South China sea? Is the US turning to ASEAN to further its alleged China containment policy? These external geo-political factors present both a problem and an opportunity for ASEAN going forward.
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Bangon
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Discussion 3 : 17 Nov 2012 at 17.343
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wakeup: FYI, some 30 years ago, at a symposium of port and airport authorities (I was participating, but forgot the name) the Americans told that their future investments were going to be concentrated on the Westcoast ports, because in the 21st century the Pacific Ocean would replace the Atlantic as the centre of the world's economical activity (in a nutshell).
IMHO, Chinese (neo)imperialism could soon beccome more of a problem than American hegemony was/is...
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wakeup
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Discussion 2 : 17 Nov 2012 at 15.252
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The US has been writing policy papers for 2 decades about the coming showdown with China. This South China Sea tension coincided directly with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's "American Pacific Century" declaration - not her own policy, but the official public roll-out of America's long planned China-containment policy. It's about American hegemony, not regional stability.
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Ian
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Discussion 1 : 17 Nov 2012 at 09.401
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China's diplomatic strategy seems to be aimed at dividing ASEAN by a mixture of threats and economic pressures. Thus it should be clear that ASEAN's strength ultimately lies in maintaining its solidarity.
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Unity under threat at summits | Bangkok Post: news