Chinese Protest Ships Near Paracels

OK, so the US sent the guided missile destroyer USS Higgins and guided missile cruiser USS Antietam to disputed territory again close enough to the Paracel Islands that the Chinese responsded and “drove them away”.  The usual rhetoric followed:  We are defending our territory, they say, leaving out the part about that territory being in dispute and claimed by other countries, and the UN Arbitral Commission findings that they are in violation of the UN procedures for sea traffic.  Maybe that is too much to put in a press release.  The Wall Street Journal summarizes the incident.

Sooner or later, the US is going to have to do more than just send ships into this middle-of-nowhere group of islands.  Nobody, Vietnam or Brunei has put troops in any of these islands, built many permanent structures, or put radar and jamming equipment on any of their islands.  That is why China has continued down the path of taking over the South China Sea as if it were theirs.  Nobody has put up a fight yet, though Vietnam came close.  None of the countries involved have done much except the US, and the US is not claiming any territory in that part of the world.  The Chinese are trying to put a 12 mile limit around all of the islands, effectively taking on large amounts of space and calling it their own territory.  Then, they claim all the territory in the 9-Dash Line.  Nobody is buying this bogus claim, but nobody is doing anything about keeping the Chinese from enforcing it.  Possession is 9/10ths of the law, they say.