Chinese Expansionism - New danger of the world

By Tran Kinh Nghi-Independent researcher

Why China having  no neighbor friends  

China's history is that of encroachment, annexation  and expansion over   territories of  neighboring states for thousands of years . With the traditional closed society as indicated with the Great Wall, the Forbidden City or even private houses rounded by walls, and only strong in ground forces, the acient Chinese dynasties never sent their  armies to invade territories or islands far beyond their bounderies.  Unlike the British Empire, France or the United States ...., the Chinese used the method of encroaching nearby neighboring lands at the same time  with various tricks to  assimilate for long-termed permanent annexation to build up its national territorial integrity. That was the way they used to annex dozens of Hundred Beiyue kingdoms during  prehistoric times and are now doing so with Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Taiwan .... They are also plotting to do so with India, Siberia and Central Asia, Vietnam and Korea, Myanma, Laos. Only recently they began to realize the importance of the sea, so late but still trying to punch away some "left food" and hoping to wrest back what are already belong to others. With such  invasive manner  in relations with neighboring states, China has virtually no friends with near neighbors but only longtime enemies. This is indeed a historical truth. 

Comparing territory of prehistory China with present  

Now with the aggressively invasive scheme over the East Sea (South China Sea) China  is causing more new hatred. Among them, Vietnam has become  the first victim, because the East Sea is the gateway, a facade and the blood of nearly a hundred million people . Legally, Vietnam is the only one with sufficient evidence of history and international law to claim at least the western part of the East Sea, including Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagos. However, China had used force to seize the Hoang Sa from South Vietnam government in 1974 and later in 1988 to invade some rocks and reefs at  the Truong Sa archipelago of the then united Vietnam . 

Knowing itself lacking of  legal basis, China always boasts about the so-called "historical evidences" by the  9-dotted line that was self drawn without basing on  any kind of conditions. To avoid the ax of international communities , Beijing sponsors the policy of  "bilateral negotiations" and resolutely refusing multilateral talks in order to take advantage of it's  overwhelming strength over the weak. Everyday thousands of Chinese fishing vessels accompanied by naval war- ships illegally exploiting traditional fishing zones of Vietnam, the Philippines and other littoral states. Most recently 30 ships are stationing illegally at the Truong Sa islands of Vietnam.  Those brazen acts of provocation are rooted from bestowed Chinese tradition of using force. 

Be ware of  Great Han hegemonic expansionism  

These are for what purpose if not expansionism ?

Paracel island turned into a springboard of Chinese expansionism

The above historical facts show that the purpose of China's invading the East Sea is primarily for territorial expansion; searching for energy and marine resources is secondary importance. That's why Beijing considers the East Sea  "core interests"; if just for the sake of oil and natural gas, they are not so obstinate !.They have just announced establishing  the so-called "Three Sands City" encompassing the Paracel islands, Spratly islands and even some rocks in between.  What happens when someday they would claim the vast sea region as China's "domestic sea" and block it from foreign entering ships? This must be  a potential problem for the whole world, not only Vietnam and the Philippines, because  this Sea lies on the pearling sea lanes linking East-West and South-North of the Hemisphere. But unfortunately this expansionist ambition of  the Great Ethnic Han   remains  so vague in the  world that  few people  feels worried or just ever mind about it. If anyone is more or less interested, they normally expect  the U.S. to act as the gendarme as before while China is running out of control like a crazy force. This is a paradox of our modern time. Among  many causes, there are reasons from the false, misleading, incomplete knowledge about China among people outside. The Europeans and Americans  often know about China as an age-old and ancient feudal society to explore for curiosity and mysteries. They always give this awakening raising big "tiger" understanding and tolerance rather than  necessary precautions. Even many of Asians, Africans and Latin Americans having  no common border with China do not know well about  all those effects  of Chinese expansionism and this truth  will never change.   

So, now is the high time for the world to seriously reconsider about the danger of Chinese expansionism similar the German fascism in early 21st century! The position of  today's Vietnam  is similar to that  of Austria or Poland while the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries may be like Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and so forth during the period before the outbreak of World War II.  Would  the U.S., Japan, Australia, India or others  will serve as the Soviet Union and the Allies (?) But do not wait until too late!