1125 South China Sea

The South China Sea is 1.4 million square miles of ocean bounded in the west by Vietnam, the east by Taiwan & Philippines, and in the south by Borneo & Sumatra; most importantly, as its name implies, it is also bounded in the north by China. All of those nations have important interests in the area: fishing, oil & gas exploration, and of benefit to the whole world, a third of all shipping passes through the area. Obviously, that also makes the South China Sea of strategic importance to the U.S., commercial & militarily. The question has become: who is the South China Sea more important to, and what to lengths will they go to procure or defend it? Apparently, that would be China: they are not intimidated by any nation or group of nations, and since their intent is to claim the South China Sea as their own, they simply built artificial islands and armed them, creating an unmoving aircraft carrier: landing strip, submarine base & patrol boat HQ. No amount of complaining on the part of the U.S. is going to convince them to tear down those platforms on their own, and we can't make them. China’s intent is to de facto own the South China Sea by simply waiting until the U.S. is tired of pushing back.