US should make bolder moves in the S China Sea

Washington

After President Barack Obama's recent visits to Vietnam and Japan, the wider Asia-Pacific region has to wonder what the future holds as a dangerous geo-strategic rivalry develops between China and the United States. And considering the stakes, such worries are completely justified.

The rise of China - and its campaign to "salami slice" its way, occupying small pieces of reefs and semi-submerged features in the South China Sea in increments towards regional dominance - threatens America's dominant position in Asia. Beijing's seemingly inexhaustible need to control the world's most economically vibrant region has set in motion what The New York Times rightly called a "game of chicken" that many fear could spark a tragic great-power war.