[https://www.google.com/maps/place/Spratly+Islands/@8.1250832,118.8474945,4z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x33d4a307e1349371:0x7d2a6c70ee3295a1 ] They are a long way from China, roughly 1000 miles. Nobody claims territory this far from home, without some historical reason.
The Chinese say, very vaguely, that they have "historical claims to these islands" and they apparently told Hillary Clinton that when she was Secretary of State. Mohan Malik in Historical Fiction: China’s South China Sea Claims World Affairs May/June, 2013 says these claims are largely a fiction and only go back as far as 1947 when the maps were drawn with the Spratly Islands in Chinese territory.
We have always lived in interesting times, which is partly an old Chinese curse, but these are more interesting because two major powers have decided to expand in different ways while nobody challenges them. China stakes out a territorial claim, takes years to plan its development, and moves slowly but steadily to its goal. They make few enemies by moving slowly. Russia goes slashing through the places it wants to take over, manufacturing allies who call for their help. They too claim territory once owned by their country. They will be wanting Alaska back shortly, moving armies into the north to firm up the claims.
The areas both of them are claiming are pretty large. New Russia extends from Odessa in the west, to Donbass in the east, mostly territories they do not hold now. China is claiming an area that makes that look tiny.
So, is the rest of the world suddenly taking a nap, or does it just not care? Books at Amazon
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