Rising power China colliding with US global hegemony. As usual, oil.
But securing oil production isn’t China’s only worry; shipping, of course, is also a key concern. More than 80 percent of Beijing’s imported oil has to wind its way through a global choke point, the Strait of Malacca—a channel near Singapore that shrinks to less than two miles wide and handles more than 15 million barrels of oil shipments a day. In a 2003 speech, Hu Jintao, then China’s president, articulated the “Malacca dilemma”: the fear that “certain major powers”—code for the United States—could cut China’s energy lifeline in this narrow passage, mirroring what America did to Japan during World War II.
New Eastern Outlook
China: Demand for Resources and the Changing Contours of Foreign Policy
Salman Rafi Sheikh
See also, Yana Leksyutina, The First Chinese White Paper on Military Strategy: New Accents?
China: Demand for Resources and the Changing Contours of Foreign Policy
Salman Rafi Sheikh
See also, Yana Leksyutina, The First Chinese White Paper on Military Strategy: New Accents?
2 comments:
It's not a "fear"! With Obama's "pivot to Asia", it's a more concrete "in your face" fact than it was under previous administrations. But what will China do? Confront the US Navy? Unlikely. Build a pipeline instead? Where from? This looks increasingly nasty.
A key article of US foreign and military policy is command of air and sea. this is a key element in US global hegemony. The justification of control of the sea is "free trade." But the reality is that it allows the US cut off trade to selected countries should it wish to impose an embargo.
One problem is that one side's embargo. e.g. to enforce sanctions, can be interpreted as a blockade by the other side, and a blockade is an act of war. So you can see where this has the potential of going when China doesn't accept the principle that America has the right to write international rules, especially given the precedent of the US and Japan that led to Japan attacking the US in retaliation.
Blockade as an Act of War/ by Christopher Greenwood
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