Competing claims and reports of oil and gas rich fields in the South China Sea have woven a complicated web affecting the maritime security environment.
China’s development of a space station is not only for the purpose of scientific experimentation but also to showcase its technological and economic strength.
It remains to be seen how far China is able to manage the challenges of providing space for religious and cultural freedom while enabling equitable economic development for all ethnic groups.
China learnt in 2010 that continued strategic tension with the United States provides less advantage to China’s vital interests. For consolidating a peaceful development environment, China began to reshape its rising strategy of “Low Profile with a new identity of an emerging power”. China might not satisfy the US hegemony profile, however, China is not certain nowadays that it can overcome its strategic limits and diplomatic isolation in East Asia.
While China’s interest in Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) dates back to the mid-1980s, the Western hi-tech precision military action in the 1991 Gulf War; the 1999 Kosovo war; the 2003 Iraq war and the continuing Afghan campaign have all convinced it to opt for the RMA, albeit within the limits of Chinese technology, organisation, and defence budget.
The 'Cheonan' incident has prodded and expedited the strategic comeback of the US in East Asia. The US offer to mediate the territorial disputes over islands and seabed minerals in the South China Sea at the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) meeting in July 2010 has provoked harsh criticism from the Chinese. This US diplomatic move appears to be a premeditated one to substantially diminish the influence of China in the region, to re-secure its own strategic forward military presence and to signal that it is not yet time for China to acquire absolute control over this critical waterway.
North Korea is unlikely to abandon its nuclear weapon development programme which has deterrence value especially considering that it does not trust China to come to its rescue in case of a threat to its security.
The summit ended with the hope of increased cooperation in East Asia, bolstered popular support for Sino-Japanese friendship, and set out a strategy for maintaining regional peace, stability and prosperity.
