Xi Jinping courts regional support as election of Donald Trump clouds future
https://www.ft.com/content/c3840120-aee1-11e6-a37c-f4a01f1b0fa1
Mr Obama’s “pivot” to Asia, and the now-stalled Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that was supposed to be its economic backbone, have for years given the US a leadership role at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. But the election of Donald Trump, who campaigned on a protectionist platform and against Mr Obama’s TPP, has rewritten that formula. On Mr Obama’s last official trip overseas, the real star at this year’s Lima summit was Chinese president Xi Jinping, who courted other APEC members with a rival to the TPP. Mr Xi offered Beijing as an alternative to what many US allies fear will be a more bellicose America under Mr Trump. “China will not shut the door to the outside world but will open it even wider,” Mr Xi told business leaders on Saturday.
Mr Obama’s “pivot” to Asia, and the now-stalled Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that was supposed to be its economic backbone, have for years given the US a leadership role at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. But the election of Donald Trump, who campaigned on a protectionist platform and against Mr Obama’s TPP, has rewritten that formula. On Mr Obama’s last official trip overseas, the real star at this year’s Lima summit was Chinese president Xi Jinping, who courted other APEC members with a rival to the TPP. Mr Xi offered Beijing as an alternative to what many US allies fear will be a more bellicose America under Mr Trump. “China will not shut the door to the outside world but will open it even wider,” Mr Xi told business leaders on Saturday.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/01/24/is-trump-ready-for-war-in-the-south-china-sea-or-is-his-team-just-not-being-clear/?utm_term=.afd01aa90c9a
On Monday, new White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the United States would prevent China from taking over territory in international waters in the South China Sea.
His comments were widely interpreted as doubling down on remarks by Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, on Jan. 11 that the United States would not allow China access to islands it has built in the South China Sea, and upon which it has installed weapons systems and built military-length airstrips.
Experts had initially thought Tillerson might have misspoken, but Spicer's remarks appeared to raise the likelihood that the administration was indeed considering blocking China's access to its new islands in the Spratlys.
His comments were widely interpreted as doubling down on remarks by Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, on Jan. 11 that the United States would not allow China access to islands it has built in the South China Sea, and upon which it has installed weapons systems and built military-length airstrips.
Nationalist tabloid the Global Times warned that any move to blockade the islands could provoke a “large-scale war.”
That is an assessment broadly shared by many foreign policy experts.
Mira Rapp-Hooper, a South China Sea expert at the Center for a New American Security, called the threats to bar China's access in the South China Sea “incredible” and told Reuters it had no basis in international law.
“A blockade — which is what would be required to actually bar access — is an act of war,” she added.
Mira Rapp-Hooper, a South China Sea expert at the Center for a New American Security, called the threats to bar China's access in the South China Sea “incredible” and told Reuters it had no basis in international law.
“A blockade — which is what would be required to actually bar access — is an act of war,” she added.
