President Trump Proposes New Plan to Subside Tension in the South China Sea
On Monday, the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, shared his proposal for how to “fix things” in the South China Sea (SCS). This region has been used, claimed, and militarily controlled by a vast number of nations over its history. Small ethnic groups, empires, and military regimes have all at some point used the area, in particular because it offers an abundance of natural resources and is in a key position for major shipping routes. Although several countries are currently fighting over the SCS, the main players are the Philippines, Vietnam, and of course, China.
Every country has its own explanation for the claims of the South China Sea. China supposedly has records dating back to the Xia and Han dynasties, while Vietnam’s Cham ethnic group, whose existence goes back to over a millennium, has stated that they have been using the region for commerce and self-sustainability for centuries. More recently, the Philippines professed their claim over the Spratly Islands, a key part of the South China Sea, in 1946 at the United Nations. Their claim also complies with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea which allows for 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone. On the other hand, you have different fingers, but also, minor countries like Brunei, Cambodia, and Malaysia have officially said that they only claim right to the region because they felt left out of the conversation. All of these contesting views have sparked controversy and created volatile conflicts.
President Trump thankfully proposed a new plan in order to suppress all tensions in the South China Sea once and for all. Having attended the prestigious University of Pennsylvania, Trump is a well-studied intellectual who took a couple of world history classes and thus knows a lot about it, specifically the trade networks of the Indian Ocean which he has always been perplexed by. This is why Trump stated that the best way to solve the issue is for countries to fight over the territories to “see who gets it”. He argues that this is the way people settled disputes during that time. Furthermore, he stated that after the obvious winner (China) takes over, he will make them change all their technologies to those similar to the ones used in the Chinese “Golden Age” so they can start assimilating their culture back to how it was. He argues that maybe this can give the Chinese a chance to compete with the current leader of the Free World as China was the greatest empire during this epoch. Moreover, by doing this, China would finally have a solution to the ludicrous amounts of gas emissions being released. According to himself, Trump “is a genius”. Vice-President Kanye West also voiced his excitement on regards to this strategy, hailing it as revolutionary.
