The leaders of Russia and China are testing the resolve of the US President in almost exactly the same way, one in Crimea and the other in the South China Sea. Russia has become the "go to" country now that North Korea has stopped testing and launching missiles. This is a dual test of the ability of other countries to seize territory that does not belong to them (by international law) and enforce their domain over that territory. For the Russians this is the strategy of forcing confrontation with the Ukraine (see the Wall Street Journal editorial on this in today's paper) while the EU is weakened by the problems in France and Germany.
At the same time, China continues its militarization of the South China Sea, which they said they would never do. This strategy of denial-of-area has been working pretty well. Slowly strangle the ability of military forces to get into an area that needs to be controlled. They choke off Taiwan, manipulate the countries around the SCS, build up their islands and threaten any aircraft or ship that comes in. Use a combination of economic, diplomatic and military power to deny the space.
The Russians have discovered this strategy actually works, but given their less than subtle nature, have crudely implemented it in the Black Sea. They took Crimea with more care than they show in the Kerch Straits. You can see the video of this confrontation in several places like this one, https://www.wsj.com/video/russia-fires-on-ukrainian-military-vessels-near-crimea/583408DC-2048-4074-8571-6C86DE21BC93.html It clearly shows which country is using the force and which one is not. They are cutting the Black Sea off from the Sea of Azov which is north of the Kerch Straits.
In my most current version of the Chinese Information War (McFarland), I said this is war by another name, "annexation". It is armed confrontation, supplemented with economic and political warfare.
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