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South China Sea
Opinion

Does the Trump White House know that Asia is opting for diplomacy on South China Sea?

Elena Collinson says its belligerent tone exposes the Trump administration as out of touch, and Australia must urge restraint as well as underline changing regional realities

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A newspaper headline highlights the phone conversation between US President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, in central Sydney on February 3. Photo: Reuters
Elena Collinson
Australians noticed when US President Donald Trump’s then nominee for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, told the Senate on January 11 that China should not be allowed access to its artificial islands in the South China Sea. If this amounted to a blockade, he would probably seek Australian participation. He said: “We’ve got to show back up in the region with our traditional allies in Southeast Asia.”

Australians also could not have missed the brutal message emerging from Trump’s phone conversation with their prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull: a volatile White House is poised to ride roughshod over old alliances, putting their contributions under intense scrutiny with an eye to what Washington gets in return.

Watch: Trump on tough phone calls

‘The worst call by far’: how Trump’s phone conversation with Australia’s PM Turnbull really went

But the nations of Southeast Asia that claim territory in the South China Sea have settled on diplomacy. None is seeking a US show of force or asking for US intervention. It’s uncertain for whom America would be mounting blockades.
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The Philippines is the most dramatic example of one-on-one diplomacy with China, producing a kind of détente. In November, following President Rodrigo Duterte’s visit to Beijing, there was a quiet withdrawal of the Chinese troop ships and dredging barges that had reportedly arrived in Scarborough Shoal a few months earlier. Three hundred Filipino fishermen were reported to have returned to the shoal.

Fishermen who have just returned from fishing in the disputed Scarborough shoal unload fish from a boat in Subic, Zambales, in the Philippines, on November 1. Photo: Reuters
Fishermen who have just returned from fishing in the disputed Scarborough shoal unload fish from a boat in Subic, Zambales, in the Philippines, on November 1. Photo: Reuters
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The biggest sign that Manila has downgraded the dispute was the low-key way it registered its protest at China’s installation of anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems on artificial islands in the Spratlys. The “note verbale” without fanfare or press releases was a shift from the megaphone diplomacy in place since 2010.

Philippines’ Duterte says no concern about Beijing militarisation, man-made isles in South China Sea

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