{"id":410013,"date":"2010-03-10T00:33:18","date_gmt":"2010-03-10T05:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.szone.us\/f95\/china-s-place-sun-40604\/"},"modified":"2010-03-10T00:33:18","modified_gmt":"2010-03-10T05:33:18","slug":"china%c2%92s-place-in-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/410013","title":{"rendered":"China\u0092s Place in the Sun?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>On 03.09.10 12:00 PM posted by Dean Cheng<\/p>\n<p>\n&lt;ahref=&quot;http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/CHINA-PLA-100115.jpg&quot;&gt;<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/CHINA-PLA-100115.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" \/>&lt;\/p&gt;Admiral Yin Zhuo of the Chinese People\u0092s Liberation Army  Navy (PLAN) this week declared that China has an interest in  Arctic exploration. Although  China has no direct access  to the Arctic, this did not dissuade the  Admiral, who claimed that no one had sovereignty over the region. Admiral Yin  was last heard making the argument that the PRC should establish a permanent  base in the Gulf of Aden area, in order to  support Chinese anti-piracy operations.&lt;spanid=&quot;more-28405&quot;&gt;&lt;\/span&gt;<\/p>\n<p>For many years, Chinese leaders heeded*Deng  Xiaoping\u0092s admonition to keep a low profile and not take the diplomatic lead.  But several decades of extended economic growth and over a decade of  double-digit defense spending increases have resulted in a  China that has both global  economic interests and substantially more capability to assertively defend  those interests. Admiral Yin\u0092s comments are more public examples of this growing  trend.<\/p>\n<p>This does not necessarily presage armed conflict amidst  the ice floes. Rather, it is the initial salvo in typical Chinese diplomacy,  which includes not only far-reaching assertions, but investments in science and  technology, as well as claims of international legal support. Thus, the Chinese  have allocated funds for building an ice-breaker, which will allow them to  conduct Arctic research. At the same time, Admiral Yin references the UN  Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), &lt;atitle=&quot;http:\/\/www.chinanews.com.cn\/gn\/news\/2010\/03-05\/2154039.shtml&quot; href=&quot;http:\/\/www.chinanews.com.cn\/gn\/news\/2010\/03-05\/2154039.shtml&quot;&gt;stating that  under its provisions, the Arctic is the shared heritage of all  mankind.<\/p>\n<p>What ought to be of concern is that such steps are  integral to Chinese concepts of \u0093legal warfare,\u0094 wherein the law is used, not to  clarify, but to obfuscate. Idiosyncratic readings of UNCLOS are not limited to  the Arctic\u0097the Chinese used similar claims to  justify their interference with the USNS Impeccable and Victorious in 2009.<\/p>\n<p>For the United States, it is essential  that such Chinese claims and challenges be met resolutely. Such Chinese claims  are part of an effort to constrain the United States and other  states. Acquiescing to such claims merely opens the way to further limitations,  as well as a perception of weakness. The United States, in concert with  the other Arctic nations, needs to draw the line on Chinese encroachments, legal  and otherwise.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/2010\/03\/09\/china%e2%80%99s-place-in-the-sun\/\" >http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/2010\/03\/09\/&#8230;ce-in-the-sun\/<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On 03.09.10 12:00 PM posted by Dean Cheng &lt;ahref=&quot;http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/CHINA-PLA-100115.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;Admiral Yin Zhuo of the Chinese People\u0092s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) this week declared that China has an interest in Arctic exploration. Although China has no direct access to the Arctic, this did not dissuade the Admiral, who claimed that no one had sovereignty over the region. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-410013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410013\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}