Posted on February 25, 2017 By Benjamin Zawacki

Thai Army: the east is red
Kingdom can no longer be counted on in a confrontation with China
China has territorial disputes over the South China Sea with five Southeast Asian nations and a sixth with Taiwan. In July 2016, a UN maritime tribunal ruled China’s means of demarcating territory unlawful. Beijing’s defiance notwithstanding, this ruling put most of China’s claims on shaky legal ground, to say nothing of its 3,000 acres of artificial islands constructed since 2013.
As candidate, Trump used the presidential debates to deliver an economic indictment against China—manufacturing threat, currency manipulator, climate change propagandist—and announced plans to increase the US Navy’s fleet from 272 to 350 ships. If the China claims were aimed at viewers and votes, the naval announcement was likely the more clearly heard in Beijing. Tiếp tục đọc “Sea Change Awaits Trump in Thailand” →