All three nations are involved in long-running maritime disputes with China over national boundaries in the East and South China Seas.
All three nations named in the sign are involved in long-running maritime disputes with China over national boundaries in the East and South China Seas.
China plans to continue not just to assert but also to enforce through energy exploration and extraction its claims to disputed areas in the East China and South China Seas.
FORBES: Futenma and Changing U.S., China, and Japan Strategic Visions in Northeast Asia
In early March of last year, for instance, Chinese trawlers dangerously harassed two unarmed U.S. Navy reconnaissance ships, the Victorious and the Impeccable, in the Yellow and South China Seas.
The arrival of the new vessel comes at a time when China is in dispute with a number of neighbouring countries over national boundaries in the East and South China Seas.
America's pivot to the Pacific reflects a growing strategic concern over China's rise as a military power, amid simmering disputes over Taiwan and contested islands in the south and east China seas.
During recent trips to Vietnam and Japan, India's defense minister George Fernandes struck agreements to conduct tripartite naval exercises to "work in tandem" to combat piracy across the Arabian and South China seas.
Such an outcome would give China far greater power projection in the East and South China Seas -- through which flow much of East Asia's trade, including the bulk of Japan and South Korea's oil imports.
But China's recent claims over the mineral-rich South China, Yellow and East China seas and its aggressive patrols in vital sea lanes between the Pacific and Indian oceans have sent the not-at-all subtle message that it isn't willing to share power in its backyard.
Rather than provoking China by arming Taiwan and patrolling the seas, it would be better to placate it, and throw it the morsel of Taiwan.
Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas ship, set to sail in June from China, sold out quicker than expected, Mr. Fain said.
Over the past year, China has tried many times to project greater influence in its surrounding seas by way of simple, brute force.
Japan's relationship with Washington has assumed more importance for Tokyo in recent months as it has locked horns with China over the control of unoccupied islands in the resource-rich seas between them.
Only China seems prepared to press fully its claim to rule the entire southern seas.
FORBES: China Stoops To Administer In Disputed Southern Waters
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