Military Jet Evacuates Subi Reef Sick

Reuters is saying today [http://www.reuters.com/article/us-southchinasea-china-usa-idUSKCN0XG0UO] that the Chinese are being questioned by the U.S. about a military flight going into Subi Reef in the Spratley chain of islands in the South China Sea, apparently to evacuate some sick individuals.  China says these islands are theirs and they can do what they want.  A military plane was available.

It seems like this would not even be raised in any other circumstances, since it appears to be a humanitarian need and military aircraft or not would not make a difference to anyone.  But these islands are in the middle of the South China Sea dispute between several countries and China.  China continues to call their claim on the islands "indisputable" when the term is not very accurate.  It is disputed, most recently by the Philippines, but also by several other countries in the region.  The Chinese have ignored any contrary claims, and even do not participate in negotiations, inferring that the matter is not negotiable.   They must know this will not go away just by looking in another direction and pretending like this is not really a disputable issue.  The U.S has sent more ships into the area and the Chinese have gotten pressure from other countries to back off.  They ignore those too.

The Chinese seem to believe this will all blow over one day if they are persistent.  It smacks of the same logic the Russians used in Crimea, where work on a land bridge to Crimea is continuing without interruption.  Nobody is telling them to get their armed forces back to Russia and leave the Crimea to the Ukraine.  It harks back to the time when President Obama was meeting with Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev and on an open mike told him he could not talk about some issues until after the election.  Then, they could work something out.  This time, there is going to be new President and that person will not be willing to work out a land grab by another government.  China and Russia both know it and will more than likely be ready for the change.