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It is true that if China could control the Strait of Malacca they could interdict oil and liquified natural gas from U.S. allies as you say.
But it is probably a bigger deal that the U.S. could interdict oil shipments from the MidEast to China.
China is very poor in energy and other natural resources including the raw materials for their manufacturing economy.
They are acutely aware of this. It is their dominant strategic priority to negate this potentially fatal weakness. Almost all of their global and military buildup can be interpreted as trying to break out of this strategic stranglehold.
In the meantime they are trying to assert a provision of maritime law which, in their interpretation, gives them control of a 200 mile band around each "island" if it becomes populated.
The U.S. of course opposes all of this. Our grand strategy SHOULD be (and may in fact be, under Trump) to disengage completely from China economically, thereby allowing their parasitical communist system to implode as did the USSR.
yes, but for the last 300 years, the West Philippine sea has been under the control of the Philippines and VietNam.
The last “chinese” who controlled the are were pirates from South China, and the Philippines and Spain fought them off.
China is hinting they want to take over the northern isand of Luzon, where many Chinese immigrants live, and they are now positioning Chinese militaryas “employees” on the on line casinos here (one local news paper estimates 5000 of them).
https://opinion.inquirer.net/127933/fifth-column
Duterte is “pro China’, partly because the CIA had their own candidate for president and Duterte won, and now CIA fronts are funding opposition newspapers and “human right” complaints against him.
President Obama refused to help the Philippine militarily stop China, and said take it to court. Well, the Philippines won, and now those shoals are man made military bases.
Duterte figures the Philippines is too weak to stop China, and sees Trump now trying to stop China as a losing fight for the Philippines. And of course many of the Manila families have Chinese ties or take money from China, but the average person hates China.
it is true that this sealane is west of the Molacca straits, but is the short cut to east Asia...and east Russia. Remember, China once “owned” Siberia, and there are many Chinese “immigrants” in the eastern cities of Russia.
as for shipping: True, boats can spend more money traveling east of the Philippines instead, but the bad news is that China is starting to make aggressive noises about one shoal on our eastern coast too.
You might say that this is not the US fight, but China is pushing around India and Indonesia to grab lane or sea resources, and has been pressuring Australia to throw out the USA,
Excellent explanation. Thank you.