This is not to say that these new leaders will not develop greater effectiveness. China is also exploiting the United States' understandable reluctance to become embroiled if the sea-lanes are not imperiled. Assertions of sovereignty without a U.S. rejoinder provide a marvelous opportunity to drive wedges between the U.S. and our allies and friends in Southeast Asia. Indirectly this supports China's arguments that U.S. bilateral alliances are relics of the past and are not relevant to today's problems. The opportunity exists to demonstrate to China that they have once again miscalculated U.S. responses to their activities.
American policy needs to help shape that view.
The U.S. needs to send stronger messages to China regarding China's activities. First we need to reject the notion that creeping landgrabs under the guise of asserting sovereignty are acceptable behavior. The potential for conflict is too great. We need to define our interests more broadly by asserting that the Spratly dispute clearly has the potential to trigger conflict, even if inadvertently, and that the best course of action is to internationalize resolution of the dispute before resources become an issue. It should not be left to fester.