Most wars start with battle lines being drawn. It is clear that’s what is happening here. I doubt China wants a war with Japan, Australia, India, Taiwan, and the Phillipines, not to mention the United States.
China has too much to lose if it antagonizes the whole world, which then shuts it out of the marketplace. It has grown fat on those markets, and will quickly degenerate to third-world status if they close.
And all for what? So China can claim some worthless chunks of coral in the South China Sea? Doesn’t make any sense.
By the way, we would do well to remember that it was tiny Serbia that struck the spark that ignited World War I.
its kabuki shadow theater, posturing for home consumption.
there won’t be any wars, at least any shooting wars. Chinese enjoy being rich and won’t let a few nationalist hotheads upset the cash flow.
“And all for what? So China can claim some worthless chunks of coral in the South China Sea? Doesn’t make any sense.”
It makes complete sense. The 9-dash line will allow the Chicoms to control the trade routes to all of Asia from Eroupe and the Middle East. Much of the shipping to SE and E Asia, especially the raw materials and foodstuffs needed by Japan and ROK, and the resources shipped out of SE Asia go through the South China Sea. China has already told the world that the sea and air routes through the area are under their jurisdiction. Such control, if unchallenged, could leverage our allies in the region.
The South China Sea is critical as a shipping route.
If the Chinese own it and are able to license access through it, they have the keys to the economies of all the Asian “tigers”, being in a position to control their economies.
Their economies are collectively larger than Chinas.
Building before the Pearl Harbor attack, Japan was rolling out aircraft runways on "worthless" Pacific islands snatched from Germany after WWI.