China Becoming More Aggressive: Philippines and Vietnam Concerned

Chinese Submarine (Yuan-class SSK)

China’s growth and territorial assertiveness is causing concerns:

26 July 2012

(Reuters) – China has adopted a more aggressive stance in recent weeks on territorial disputes in the South China Sea as hard-line officials and commentators call on Beijing to take a tougher line with rival claimants.

China’s supreme policymaking body, the Politburo Standing Committee, is made up entirely of civilians, but outspoken People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officers, intelligence advisers and maritime agency chiefs are arguing that Beijing should be more forceful in asserting its sovereignty over the sea and the oil and natural gas believed to lie under the sea-bed.

Most of them blame the United States’ so-called strategic “pivot” to Asia for emboldening neighbouring countries, particularly the Philippines and Vietnam, to challenge China’s claims. http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/07/25/china-southchinasea-idINDEE86O0IO20120725

China expanded its presence earlier this week by putting just over 600 people on a rock of an island in an effort to get some type of international recognition of certain of its territorial claims:

July 25, 2012

Official Chinese media just announced the founding of a city that spans a series of tiny coral reefs, some often submerged…China’s establishment of Sansha City in the disputed, resource-rich South China Sea shows the nation’s commitment to edge out five other claimants to most or all of the ocean area in a tense sovereignty dispute and keep the United States at bay – all without using military force…

Other claimant countries, already miffed that Beijing declined to sign a South China Sea code of conduct at the East Asia Summit in Cambodia earlier this month, may follow China’s lead by raising their own actual presence in the 3.5 million square-kilometer (1.4 million square-mile) sea area…

China’s rivals to sovereignty over the sea are Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, and the Philippines. http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2012/0725/Why-China-is-founding-a-new-city-on-a-coral-reef

China is upsetting many of its neighbors (government officials from the Philippines, for example, have rigorously protested this). The Chinese press is not overly concerned by Filipino comments as the following suggests:

The Philippines has three options in dealing with the South China Sea issue. First, cooperate with China for joint development. Second, challenge China with the United States’ help and continue making trouble for China. Third, make use of both the US and China. The Philippines may trade with China and seek a security guarantee from the US at the same time.

The messages sent so far by Manila are confusing, even self-conflicting. President Aquino III says his government will solve the South China Sea dispute through peaceful and diplomatic manners. But he also compares the Huangyan Island to “the backyard” of the Philippines.

No matter which option he chooses, he should be aware of one basic fact: The Philippines’ sovereignty claim to parts of the South China Sea and Huangyan Island has no historical and legal support.

Something I read earlier this week by the Philippines’ President stated that he felt that China had no legal right. Whether it does or not, will the USA and the Philippines fight China over this now that China is there?

Despite strains between China and the Philippines, ultimately, the Bible suggests cooperation among many of the far eastern nations (Revelation 16:12). Circumstances and alliances in the world often change, and will again.

Now China itself is currently becoming a military distraction for the USA and others (and China is a real threat to Australia, New Zealand, and nearly all of the Asia nations), and while its threat to the USA appears carnally valid, the reality is that China is not, of itself, prophesied to takeover the USA.

Even though China will have some prominence in the end times (and will fairly certainly be one of the “kings of the east” of Revelation 16:12 and provide many soldiers in the 200,000,000 man army of Revelation 9:13-21), it will not end up as the top economic force in the 21st century. Europe will (cf. Daniel 11:39).

But partially because of increasing Chinese economic and military influence, the USA will apparently expend so much energy preparing for military possibilities involving China that it will not be prepared for what is coming out of Europe. This is something that the press in general has tended to overlook.

Some articles of possibly related interest may include:

China, Its Biblical Past and Future, Part 1: Genesis and Chinese Characters This article provides information showing that the Chinese peoples must have known about various accounts in the Book of Genesis up until their dispersion after the Tower of Babel.
China, Its Biblical Past and Future, Part 2: The Sabbath and Some of God’s Witness in China When did Christianity first come to China? And is there early evidence that they observed the seventh day sabbath?
Asia in Prophecy What is Ahead for China? Is it a “King of the East”? What will happen to nearly all the Chinese, Russians, and others of Asia? China in prophecy, where?
India, Its Biblical Past and Future: Any Witness? The Bible discusses the origins of those of Indian heritage and discusses some of the witness to them (including those in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka).
Islands and Bible Prophecy What’s ahead for islands? What does the Bible prophesy about them?
Will the Anglo-Nations be Divided? Will the lands of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand be divided? Might military alliances be part of the reason that non-US Anglo-nations get divided? What does Bible prophecy teach? Are there non-biblical prophecies that support this idea? Who will divide those lands? Who will end up with the lands and the people?
Europa, the Beast, and Revelation Where did Europe get its name? What might Europe have to do with the Book of Revelation? What about “the Beast”? Is an emerging European power “the daughter of Babylon”? What is ahead for Europe?