Naval Collision Adds to Fears About U.S. Decline in Asia
After the collision on Monday, the Chinese state news media also declared
that Beijing was making progress on establishing rules for ships navigating the South China Sea "while the U.S. Navy is becoming a dangerous obstacle." "The U.S. Navy, which likes to claim its presence can safeguard ‘freedom of navigation’ in the South China Sea, is proving to be an increasing hindrance to ships sailing in Asian waters," China Daily, an English-language government mouthpiece, said in an editorial.
But he argued that the administration’s failure to formulate a broader strategy in the region invited "the deeper question: Just how important is the South China Sea for the U.S.?" As Mr. Trump has announced the United States’ withdrawal from major international accords, like the Paris climate agreement
and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, Beijing has positioned itself as a champion of globalization’s rules of engagement.
Joseph Chinyong Liow, a dean at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said in a recent op-ed in the newspaper The Straits Times
that the United States had become a "distracted power," and that turmoil in Washington had "disrupted the administration’s ability to think strategically about global affairs." "America’s position of leadership has suffered as a result," he wrote.
Carlyle Thayer said that It’s good, of course, to fly the U.S. flag in the region,
The Chinese state news media, which accused the Pentagon this month of provoking regional conflict by sending the John S.
McCain near Mischief Reef, seized on the collision to step up its criticism of American forays in the South China Sea.
The Philippines may be bound to the United States through a defense treaty, but Mr. Duterte said on a visit to Beijing last year
that it was "time to say goodbye" to the United States.
"The international laws of collision avoidance are not observed, which is the root of these accidents." In Japan, the
news media worried about what a weakened Navy might mean for the United States’ ability to protect the country.