Testing Territorial Limits

The Spratly Islands in the South China Sea have been a hotly contested issue as China claims to have territorial rights over the artificial island chain, while other countries do not view them as Chinese territory. Late Monday night, October 26th, a United States naval destroyer was seen near the islands as a challenge to the legitimacy of these Chinese claims. The U.S. does not view this maneuver as a violation of Chinese sovereignty, because, as the State Department stated,  U.S. ships have the right to travel through any international waters they please. As this article by the New York Times explained, the United States and its regional allies have not been pleased with the recent territorial expansion of China into the South China Sea. The legitimacy of Chinas control over these islands is highly contested, and many countries are unhappy with the expansion.

This move by the U.S. fits well into the realist theory of international relations, by using power in order to achieve U.S. intentions. While the article points out that for the U.S. it was a move to ensure its economic goals, it was completed in an aggressive manner, creating more tension between the U.S. and China. It will be interesting to see if U.S./Chinese relation will remain peaceful in the future due to economic benefits, or if their differing ideologies will grow to be too extreme. This more aggressive stance against Chinese expansion may show that neither country is willing to back down in the future.