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The US mounts pressure across 3 maritime flashpoints. How should China respond?
Washington’s strategy for Taiwan Strait and East and South China seas aims to force Beijing to overextend, analysts warn
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Chinese researchers have called for more coordination among the country’s maritime authorities to counter an American strategy that has put pressure on Beijing across three critical waterways in the first island chain.
By synchronising operations across flashpoints in the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, Washington’s “three seas linkage” strategy aims to force Beijing into multi-front operations and strategic overextension, warned Yue Shengsong, an associate professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University, in an article on Monday.
The three waterways lie along the first island chain, which stretches along the East Asian coastline from the Kuril Islands down to Borneo, encompassing Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines.
The chain divides China’s near seas from the open Pacific Ocean. For Washington, it functions as a barrier to contain Chinese naval expansion.
Writing in the Pacific Journal, Yue recommended that Beijing strengthen coordination across agencies and build credible deterrence along with a resilient system for protecting its maritime rights.
“The country should establish cross-departmental mechanisms to ensure unified responses across the diplomatic, military, law enforcement, legal and communications domains,” Yue wrote.
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